Child Support
by junienmomo
Summary: Chapter 3 updated with some corrections. Drawn from selected events of the second half of season six. No Pod Lorelai. Luke is still an indecisive jerk. Let's see how that combination works out. For every review, an anvil lands on Christopher.
1. We have to tell each other everything

Child Support

* * *

 **A/N: Drawn from selected events of the second half of season six. No Pod Lorelai. Luke is still an indecisive jerk. Let's see how that combination works out.**

 **For every review, an anvil lands on Christopher.**

* * *

CS 1 _We have to tell each other everything._

* * *

" _Rory's back," announced Lorelai as she entered the diner._

" _What?" asked Luke, still distracted from his crazy day._

" _She's back. She's back at home, she's back at school, she got a job, and she did it all on her own." She beamed with pride and happiness._

 _Lorelai blew through the diner, chattering a mile a minute, packing doughnuts._

" _She's at Lane's picking up her things, and then we're going to pull a major all-nighter. We need burgers, fries, onion rings, and anything else you can think of. Oh! I'm going to go next door and pick up some ice cream at Taylor's."_

 _On her way out the door, she added, "She's back! We can set the date. We can get married now because Rory's back. Don't skimp on the fries. We don't want to lose her again."_

* * *

Luke twisted his cleaning cloth as he watched Lorelai chat and giggle with the Betsy Ross-dressed server in Taylor's shop as she ordered her ice cream. That scene felt as unreal to him as the interchange with April had that afternoon. Lorelai will understand this, he thought. I'll ask her.

When his fiancée dashed in again, he had no more chance to speak than when she had been in five minutes earlier.

"Ice cream, doughnuts, check. We are going to watch loud bad movies all night and mock them to bits!"

She looked at Luke, who was still dumbfounded. "You'll get those burgers going? I've got to go back in case she thinks about bolting." She dropped one more peck on Luke's lips, then dashed out the door before he could respond.

Luke sighed. The grill needed to be turned on again, which meant it needed to be cleaned again. It was going to be a late night.

"Shit!" he exclaimed as he burned his fingers on the grill. "Get a grip, Danes," he rebuked himself as he tried to focus on the cooking and not the maelstrom in his head.

He dropped a full basket of fries into the not-quite-hot-enough oil. His hands automatically reached for the lettuce, tomato and pickle garnishes, then slammed the refrigerator door shut, bringing only the cheese he knew the girls would eat.

Rory had been gone since May; it was now almost Thanksgiving. Six months Lorelai had wandered Stars Hollow like a zombie and now that he needed to talk to her, she couldn't sit still long enough for him to complete a sentence.

Completely inattentive to the cooking, he intuitively flipped the burgers and stared off into space, not noticing the overly-pink, yet partially charred burgers. He pressed them somewhat flatter with his spatula, leaving one twice as thick as the other. He slapped the cheese on the meat as the deep fry machine beeped.

Hooking the basket on the drain rack, Luke plated the burgers into take-away containers, then poured the still-dripping fries into another one. He closed the lid on the unsalted greasy mess.

Turning the grill and the fryer off, he put the containers in bags and headed for the Crap Shack on foot.

He fisted the food bags until the paper threatened to tear into shreds. How could he be a father and not know it? How could Anna be selfish enough to not tell him she was pregnant? To not tell him he was a father for twelve years? What kind of person does that sort of thing?

He trudged up the steps, as distracted as ever. When he opened the door, the blaring TV and stereo, chatter and Lorelai's laughter gave him a comforting feeling even as the noise overwhelmed him. He was looking forward to basking in this wonderful family moment.

The girls didn't disappoint. Once they realized he was in the room, Lorelai assaulted him with hugs and kisses, while Rory, who was on the telephone, gave him a wave and a giant grin.

"God, this feels good," he said into her ear as he squeezed her, trying to push his worries out of his brain. "I'm glad Rory's home."

He relaxed into her embrace, overjoyed to have both Lorelais back, but especially Lorelai Victoria. She had been emotionally checked out the whole time Rory was away. He pulled her out onto the porch and kissed her properly. Then he kissed her improperly, which she enjoyed even more.

"Welcome home," he said when they broke for air and made an attempt to stay below an X rating.

He ran his fingers through her hair, then sighed. "I've got to go back and clean the grill. I'll be back soon."

* * *

Rory had grabbed the diner bags and set the food out on the table when Lorelai came back inside.

"Look at you, all dreamy-eyed and blushing," she said to her mother. "Have you been doing naughty things outside?"

"Nothing Miss Patty wouldn't approve of," replied Lorelai.

"In other words, the Doose Morality Patrol will be putting you in the pokey?"

"Nah, we're going on the run. Gonna drive off Niagara Falls a la Thelma and Louise."

"Who's Thelma? Luke?"

"Luke's J.D., silly. With a butt like that, who else could he be?"

"Ew. Let's eat."

They bit into their burgers, immediately spitting out what they'd eaten.

"What's Luke upset about?" queried Rory. "Luke only cooks this badly when something is seriously wrong."

"Nothing," said Lorelai. "We had a fight about the bedroom furniture, but made up. I don't know why the burgers taste so bad."

"OK, then I guess we'll eat the onion rings and fries." Rory flipped the box open and popped one in her mouth. "Yuck! No salt! These are disgusting! And no onion rings."

Rory contemplated Luke's cooking and her mother's apparent indifference. The whole town knew that Luke's food was inedible when he was upset or worried about something.

"Weird," said Lorelai, shoving the containers back into the bag. She reached for the Twizzlers.

Their diner disaster meal was quickly forgotten when the pizza arrived.

Rory moved to the leather chair and bounced on it. "This feels great. Is this the only thing of Luke's that you moved in?"

Lorelai's eyes darted to the chair, then around the room, looking for a subject change. "He did move his grandmother's bedroom set in," she said, trying to sidestep the issue.

"But he moved that in as a surprise for you. A gift you called 'creepy' and rejected."

"You saw it. It WAS creepy." Lorelai shuddered at the thought of those cherubs watching them.

Rory smiled. "Jess and I used to sit on this chair and …"

"Don't want to hear it!" cried Lorelai as she stuffed a Twizzler in Rory's mouth. "You're sugar-deprived if you've been living with Emily. Eat up."

"Mom, still. You haven't let Luke move anything into the house except his clothes and his favorite chair."

Darty eyes played an encore. "That's not his chair. That's a new chair."

"It looks almost exactly like Luke's chair! Why would you go out and buy a new chair when Luke has the exact same thing already?"

Fresh from the Balalaika Battle with Emily, Rory still had plenty of backbone. Things were not right in Lorelai-world. Something weird was going on.

"You've been engaged for six months, Mom. You let Luke pay for the whole remodel, but the only thing of his that you let him have here are his clothes."

"His spatula is here. And Bert." Lorelai pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

Rory sat quietly, playing with the bowl of peanut M&Ms. "Why are you keeping him away? Are you going to break up with him?"

"No! We're happy. We're getting married!"

"Tell me about the wedding plans."

"We haven't exactly started planning yet." Darty eyes booked a longer engagement.

Sighing, Rory knew she needed to let this go for the moment. Everything was too much. She couldn't handle another fight at the moment.

The screaming match with Emily right in the middle of the balalaika tea still irked her. At least she moved out and eliminated that problem. What in the world was her grandmother thinking when she tried to ground her? Then calling Richard "your father." Now Rory had a better understanding of what Lorelai had gone through.

Seeing Jess again. How dare he tell her "This isn't you." He had no idea who she was now, how much she'd grown. The DAR was important dammit!

Logan. He was not handling his father's mandated trip to Omaha well, and he'd behaved like a jerk to Jess. She couldn't stand to even be around Logan at the moment.

Now she was home, her sanctuary. Her safe place. A remodeled, redecorated home. One with hardly a sign that Luke was living with them and a Lorelai who was deep in denial about the whole situation.

Rory scanned the photos on the mantel. "Nice photos. There's my favorite picture of us, that painting of that weird girl, even Sookie and Jackson."

"Do you like this one?" asked Lorelai as she bounced up and pulled a newer picture of Rory and Lorelai off the mantel. "Remember we took it not long after you moved to Yale?"

"It's nice, Mom. Where's a picture of Luke?"

"I haven't found a frame yet."

"Show me the picture. Do you have an engagement picture yet?"

When simple denial failed, Lorelai added distraction. "Pop in a new movie, and no talking during the movie. Have you forgotten the rules already?"

Rory rolled her eyes, selected another movie and started playing.

Lorelai's face puckered at the opening scenes of Runaway Bride. In Rory's mind, instead of the name Maggie, she substituted Lorelai.

* * *

Feeling better, Luke trotted back to the diner and made quick work of cleaning the already cooled grill and deep fryer. Arriving back home, he was determined to pull Lorelai aside and tell her about April.

He opened the door, pleasantly surprised that the noise was considerably reduced. He greeted the girls for the second time that evening. That's when he noticed the chill in the air. Superficially they looked happy, but Rory's eyebrows were stitched together in problem-solving mode and Lorelai looked more like the zombie Lorelai from yesterday than the happy mother of the prodigal daughter.

This was definitely not the time to start a new discussion.

"I'm gonna go shower and collapse in bed. I'm beat." He ruffled Lorelai's hair, dropped a kiss on the top of her head and went upstairs.

He walked through the darkened bedroom straight to the shower and enjoyed the new shower head and roomy shower space. He wearily took his sweats and T-shirt from the hook in the bathroom, pulled them on and collapsed into the bed.

The first thing that hurt was his butt when he fell a good half foot farther than expected. "Dammit!" he cursed as he remembered his grandmother's bed that he hadn't yet removed from the room. Determined to make the best of it, he lay back and tried to sleep.

The next morning he made his way painfully down the stairs, having felt every one of the many lumps and sags in the ancient bed.

Lorelai and Rory were cuddled together on the new sofa, pillows strewn everywhere. Luke smiled, ran his fingers through Lorelai's hair, then went to the kitchen to start Lorelai's coffee.

A few minutes later, a sleepy Lorelai shuffled up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. "Morning," she said sleepily, kissing his back as she leaned against him.

"That bed really sucks," he declared. "Not only is it ugly and weird, but I think I hurt my back sleeping on it."

Lorelai shivered. "It's just creepy," she agreed as she massaged his back, eliciting a painful groan from Luke.

"You guys are going shopping today, right?" he asked. "Why don't you preselect a bed or two and we can decide together later?"

She smiled up at him. "As long as later means later today, OK. Rory and I want to go on her birthday trip to Atlantic City tomorrow."

"Ah, um, OK, I guess. We can order it tonight and I'll get the old furniture out of here while you're gone."

* * *

"This is officially my favorite room in the house," declared Rory. "A bathroom with two sinks, that's luxury."

"I know! I have two sinks. I can brush my teeth in my first sink and spit into my second sink."

"Luke probably doesn't like that very much. Which sink is his?" Rory looked around the sink area.

"Ah, Luke doesn't care which sink he uses."

Rory peered into Lorelai's sink as she brushed her hair out. "I'm sure he'll care when both sinks are filled with your hair. Are you going bald?" She held up a disgusting clump of Lorelai's hair that. "This is so gross."

Lorelai began furiously brushing her hair and looking at the brush to see how much was coming out. She petulantly cleaned the brush and both sinks, dropping the hair into the toilet.

Turning to the corner cabinet, she opened the door with a flounce. "Look, here's where Luke keeps his stuff. Who are you anyway, Barney the Dinosaur? Sharing is Caring? Luke can take care of himself."

"Mom, I'm always on your side, you know that. I also know that Luke loves you so much that he'll let you walk all over his heart until it breaks."

"Luke is fine," insisted Lorelai. "Let's go to the diner and you'll see for yourself."

* * *

Lorelai and Luke began speaking simultaneously as he poured the girls' coffee.

"I've got good news," he said, pleased with his work.

"Luke, I need you to approve this list."

He looked at the paper she thrust under his nose. "List of what?"

"Just look. You'll figure it out."

He scowled at her. Guessing games weren't his forte; even less now that he was wrestling with the April situation. He's just agreed to pay for his half of the cost of raising April, and knew he needed to talk to Lorelai about it, but here she was, about to leave on her trip, and giving him a list. He shook his head to clear it and held the list up again.

"Bono. Johnny Depp. Brad Pitt. What the hell is this list, Lorelai?"

"My freebie list." She smirked at him, and received a patented Danes blank look in return.

"It's a list of guys that if I meet them in Atlantic City, I can hook up with them, and you promise not to get mad."

"By hook up, you mean sleep with them?"

"Yep. In the truest biblical sense. Banging, boom-boom, batter-dipping the…" She was stopped by Luke's open palm in front of her face.

Luke finished reading the list. "David Bowie, Kelsey Grammer. Wait. Kelsey Grammer?"

Rory piped up with a giggle. "Don't ask, Luke. Count yourself lucky she didn't put Oompa-Loompas on the list."

He put on a mock disapproving look, said, "No way am I gonna approve this. You can just write all these guys and tell them no way, no how." He turned to go back to work when Lorelai grabbed the back of his belt and pulled hard.

"Ow! What are you doing? You are never going to get my permission for this insanity."

"Luke."

"No."

"Luke, will you listen?"

He sighed, adjusting his pants after the near-wedgie she had given him. "What?" fully anticipating a litany of Kelsey Grammer's wonderful attributes. Or worse, a song.

"You had good news. What's up?"

"Ah." His face immediately softened as he remembered. Putting the coffee pot on the table, he straightened up to his full height and puffed out his chest proudly.

"Well, the new bedroom furniture's on its way and my grandmother's bedroom set is out of the house. I sold it. Made a nice bit of money, too."

"Who'd you sell it to?" asked Rory.

"Kirk," smirked Luke. He picked up the coffee pot and turned yet again, but pivoted on his toe, turning back to Rory as he remembered something.

"Say, um, Rory, you, uh, you know stuff, right?" he asked haltingly. Lorelai giggled.

"Yale has advanced placement classes in 'stuff,'" she teased.

Luke rolled his eyes, but pressed on. "How much does it cost to raise a kid these days?"

Rory smiled sweetly at Luke. "We did a series on youth pregnancy last year and I actually do know something about that stuff. Are you talking about a baby born today?" She turned to Lorelai. "Is there something you've forgotten to tell me, Mom?"

Lorelai made big googly eyes at Luke. "Luke, honey, are you trying to tell me that you're pregnant?"

"Aw, geez." He turned back to Rory. "Nah, if a kid were, say, twelve, how much did it cost to raise that kid so far?"

Rory pondered a moment. "Well, I guess you'd have to plan on maybe $40 thousand for the whole time."

Luke processed it for a moment, then said "Thanks. I was just kinda wondering. When are you guys leaving?" His stomach was turning sour, knowing they needed to talk, but there just wasn't enough time. Before he reached the sanctuary of his counter, Sookie burst through the door.

"Wedding planning can begin!" she cried. "The BFOTB has arrived!"

While Lorelai, Rory and Sookie chattered excitedly about the wedding, Luke kept working. The rhythm of order – cook – serve – clean gave him comfort. When they began talking about specifics, he joined them, only to be rudely rejected by Sookie. Lorelai didn't defend him, and he finally retreated, grumbling about wanting to be part of the planning. He felt only slightly better when Rory tried to get the two older women to include him, but that also failed.

On their way out the door, Luke ran over to Rory and Lorelai, handing them some money, saying, "Here's some of the money Kirk gave me. Place a few bets for me, OK?" A hug for Rory and a sweet kiss for his fiancée and the Gilmore Girls were on their way to Atlantic City.

* * *

 _We have to tell each other everything._

Some couples know it's important to talk about the major things in their life before making the decision.

Major financial expenditures. Buying a house. Having or not having kids. Cutting a rebellious daughter out of their life. Bringing a dog into their life. Mulling a job offer that would take one partner away from home. A kid saying "You're my father." Hearing from an old boyfriend. Visiting an old girlfriend to find out the truth about paternity.

Some couples never figure that out.

Luke Danes wrote and mailed a check for $20,000 to Anna Nardini.

Lorelai Gilmore called Christopher and made a lunch date to hear his news.

* * *

Luke had just finished talking with Anna, letting her know that he wanted a relationship with April as well as contributing child support. He felt uncomfortable even saying that, and Anna wasn't at all helpful; she kept trying to convince him that they didn't want his help.

He finally called Lorelai at the inn, determined to tell her about the situation, but the French putz rudely told him that she wasn't there, and her cell went directly to voicemail. He decided to wait until later to tell her, and went back to work.

Kirk had returned for the third time after he helped Luke find April's internet page, and offered another set of internet services for hire, which got weirder each time he approached Luke.

What had started out as a simple website for Luke's, which Luke had refused because everyone who needed to know where Luke's was, already knew where Luke's was. Kirk's idea had become a multi-media extravaganza involving dancing pork chops, cold bananas and Kirk's latest video series curiously titled "Night Terrors, or Why I Love Luke Danes." For a small additional price, Kirk assured him, he could also add a black market online gambling interface, intended to skim money off the seedy side of Stars Hollow.

* * *

Rory drove through Stars Hollow to pick up her mother for their lunch with Christopher. She was determined to be there whenever she could to make sure Lorelai stayed happy. Happiness meant Luke.

Christopher had a way of blowing in and dropping little messes like Mr. Hanky, then blowing back out, leaving a devastated Lorelai behind. Even though Lorelai assured her that Christopher only had good news, Rory knew from experience that Christopher's 'good' was usually only good from his own perspective.

The other great side to this lunch was a chance to stop dwelling on her last argument with Logan. It wasn't just about his jealous treatment of Jess. He had accused her of slacking when all she was doing was reminding him that he had life handed to him on a platinum platter. He didn't understand how hard it was for her, and how impossible life with Emily was.

His father pushing him into becoming a mini-Mitchum was nothing compared to the real troubles in her life. She was on probation, dammit! She was a felon! She had Emily telling her what to wear, what to say, what to do, who to marry, and not to have sex. Now she was out of Yale and life was hard. The only reply Logan had to any of these big problems was that she should change it. Rory snorted. That was the kind of answer only a silver-spoon trust fund baby could give.

That's why Stars Hollow was better. None of those problems existed. Only her mother and her usual relationship problems. Those she could fix. Lorelai listened to her. She would do what she said. After all, she was her mother's brilliant daughter, could do no wrong. She loved her. Stars Hollow loved her.

* * *

"So in short, I'm filthy rich!" crowed Christopher, his face lit up with his most engaging smile. "Gigi's all taken care of, as I explained, and now I want to take care of you! Tell me your heart's desire. I'll buy it for you!"

Rory noticed that Christopher was as usual focused on Lorelai, even though he'd made it clear that he intended to take care of both of them. She sipped her iced tea cautiously as she took a sidelong glance at her mother. What she saw surprised her.

Lorelai was calm. She wasn't giggling like she normally did when Christopher turned his charm on full force. She watched him speak, responded to confirm and clarify, but she wasn't taken in.

Rory was pleased with herself. The coaching she'd given her mother over the past days had clearly had an impact. She smiled a true Emily smile; self-satisfied as only a Gilmore can be.

"I'm fine," said Lorelai, with a calm demeanor. She was fine. Christopher had no impact on her. She had totally missed Rory's coaching because she didn't need it. Luke was it for her. Christopher had nothing she wanted.

Christopher was giddy about the money. He felt free. Lorelai felt free as well. She fingered her beloved engagement ring that Christopher hadn't noticed yet, being so full of his Daddy Warbucks persona. She had Luke. She had her Rory back. She had a wildly successful business. If the money made Christopher happy, she wished him all the best with it.

Rory squinted as Christopher continued to try to persuade them to take money. Well, mostly he tried to persuade Lorelai, as usual.

"Back taxes, Dad? You owe back taxes?"

"Not much. Just a couple of years. Plus a little from my California days."

"You know what, kiddo, let me do something for you guys. Let's go on a shopping trip. Name the city, we'll go and buy out the stores. Heck, we'll buy the stores if you want!" He flared a modest pleasing smile into a full-blown puppy dog beg.

Turning to Lorelai, he added, "Wouldn't you like to have a pair of Jimmy Choos? Or maybe a hundred pair?"

Lorelai grinned. "Whaddya think, Rory? A few hundred pair of Jimmy Choos? We'd need to rent an apartment just to store them."

"I'll buy you a house. A Choo house." Yap, yap, the puppy was overjoyed at the way this discussion was going.

"Gesundheit," giggled Lorelai, while Rory rolled her eyes.

"OK, where shall we go? New York? Paris? London? How about a week in each city?"

"Christopher …" began Lorelai.

"First class tickets. Airport lounges, private check-in, the top hotels."

"Dad."

"Look, Christopher, I love how you are excited and I really appreciate the offer, but I'm fine."

"You're too unmaterialistic, Lorelai. You know, I've always thought that." Christopher's smile started to crack.

"One hundred thousand dollars," said Rory quietly.

"You got it, kiddo. What's it for? Trip around the world? Porsche Carrera?"

"Child support," she replied without emotion.

"Rory, what are you talking about?" asked Lorelai.

Rory shrugged. "I got thinking about Luke's question, and when I went back to the paper, I did the research. It cost $100,000 to raise a kid back in 1984."

Lorelai's gasp turned heads. "Rory. I don't want that. We never needed it." Her pride refused to let her admit to Christopher that child support would have solved many problems while Rory grew up, most importantly buying a house and Chilton.

Christopher's eyes shifted nervously as the truth broke into his conscience. Fortunately, his attachment to the truth was tenuous at best and only lasted a few seconds, then was replaced by a sheepish smile.

"It's yours if you want it, Lorelai. You know I always meant to do that. Afterwards we'll go shopping."

The mood changed from playful how-to-spend-the-inheritance dreams to awkward. Rory knew it was time to cut the meeting short.

"Dad, how about if we talk it over and get back to you? This is a lot to take in all at once," proposed Rory.

"You won't forget about the shoes?"

"We won't forget."

"Or a castle. If you want a castle, I can take care of that, too."

"We'll talk about a castle. I promise."

"Good, let's eat." He grinned again. "I'm paying!"

* * *

Lorelai and Rory were driving back in Rory's Prius from their second meeting with Christopher. Rory had asked for, and Christopher readily agreed to pay for Yale. He additionally insisted on making a large sum of money over to her bank account so she would have living and incidental expenses for the rest of her time at Yale.

"Coffee and pie at Luke's?" suggested Rory.

"You bet, beautiful."

Lorelai remembered the mail she had gotten from the mailman as they walked out the door that morning. She flipped through the stack as they walked toward the diner, but gulped when she saw Christopher's name and address on the envelope.

"He didn't say anything about this today," she breathed, as Rory looked over her shoulder.

"Oh, my, I can't believe he did that," said Rory. "Fifty thousand dollars. Wow."

"I don't want this." Lorelai's hand shook. "What will Luke say?"

"You need to tell him, Mom. You two need to discuss what to do about this."

Lorelai stopped outside the diner and turned her worried face to her daughter.

"I haven't told him about the meetings with your dad yet," she said. "I don't know how he's gonna react."

"Mom, what happened to your promise to discuss everything?"

"We do," she insisted.

"Uh, no you don't. You went to see Dad twice and didn't tell Luke. If you do 'discuss everything,' then this won't be a problem. Take him aside now, give him the background and you can have the big discussion later."

"Sounds like a plan," Lorelai said doubtfully. A million excuses to not do it queued up in her mind.

"Then do it," urged Rory.

Without answering, Lorelai took a shuddering breath. "Let's go."

They entered the diner and took a table not far from the door. Caesar came to them, saying, "He's upstairs if you need him."

"First pie and coffee, then we'll deal with my hunky hunky fiancé later. Thanks, Caesar."

The girls were enjoying their coffee when a young girl entered the diner, looking like she was on a mission. She spoke briefly with Caesar, who was busy plating the pie, and he brought the girl over to Lorelai as he served them.

"Hey Lorelai, can you help this girl out?" asked Caesar. "She says she needs to talk to Luke."

Lorelai looked at the twelve year old. "Hi honey, what's up?"

"You know Luke Danes?" asked April, her mind focused on remembering her message for Luke.

Lorelai waggled the fingers of her left hand. "He's my fiancé, honey. We're getting married."

"Wow," said April. "That's a pretty ring. Congratulations."

"You need to talk to him?" April nodded. "I'll go get him. Why don't you have a seat here and talk to my daughter Rory?"

Rory began talking to April as Lorelai sauntered up the stairs. She was looking forward to seeing Luke with this little girl. He was always so funny around kids. She hoped he wouldn't rant too much, because she seemed very nice.

"Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!" she chanted as she closed the door to the apartment.

Luke pulled the shirt off the hanger and put the hanger back in the closet. "Hey. I was just changing my shirt. Kirk," he offered as the complete explanation.

Lorelai nodded. No words were needed for Kirk. She put her hands on Luke's chest and pushed him into the closet. "Let's do seven minutes in heaven," she said huskily.

Luke let her have her way until she reached out to close the door.

"Lorelai," he said as he nibbled on her neck, "As much as I'd like to continue, Caesar's alone downstairs. I gotta go to work."

She began caressing his ears, dropping kisses in all his favorite spots.

"Aw, hell," Luke mumbled. "I'll make it up to him later." He pulled her into the closet and closed the door.

After a few more minutes, Lorelai called, "Time's up! Let's go out and face the rest of the crowd. I'm gonna tell everyone you frenched me." She wiggled her butt as they exited the closet.

"You're nuts."

"That's just one of the reasons you love me," she said, straightening her clothes. "Now, let's get you looking all respectable again. You've got a lady waiting downstairs to talk to you."

Luke looked confused. "Who's downstairs?"

"I don't know, she just said she had to speak to you."

"Geez, it's probably some stupid thing Taylor has set up. I hate it when he does that."

They walked downstairs, Lorelai tugging playfully on his ball cap as he preceded her.

She rammed hard into Luke's back when he came to a complete standstill on the other side of the curtain.

"Ow, my nose!" she cried, rubbing the place where her face met his shoulder blade.

She walked around to Luke's front and pushed his jaw closed. "What's wrong?"

Lorelai looked at Rory, who was giving Luke a new Rory face. This wasn't Rory Pouty Eyes, trying to wangle another piece of pie. This was Rory Death Face, and she was prepared to kick Luke's ass all over town.

Luke grabbed Lorelai's wrist. "Uh, Lorelai, we gotta talk." He pulled her back behind the curtain.

"That kid, uh, she's uh …" He stopped, looked down at the floor, pressing his cap tighter on his head. No way out, gotta go through it, he thought. One deep breath and he looked at her face. Her beautiful, confused, worried face. "She's my daughter."

"What?!" she screeched, garnering the attention of several people in the diner.

"I'll explain everything. Let's go out and see what she wants." He looked at her face, which seemed to be getting paler by the moment.

Stepping forward, he noticed that Lorelai stayed behind the curtain. He took her hands in his, his thumbs tenderly rubbing the backs of her hands. "Lorelai, can you please do this for me? I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner."

She nodded slowly, still in shock, still silent, which chilled him to the bones. He took her by the hand and walked her over to Rory and April.

Rory's face frightened him, but he pushed forward. "You two got acquainted?" She nodded coldly, crossing her arms. Both he and Lorelai had made a promise to tell each other everything, but it seemed a lot more like they shared a vow of silence.

Keeping a firm grip on Lorelai's hand, he introduced April to her. Lorelai's conversation flowed, although not as easily as before she went upstairs.

April cut the discussion short, saying, "Luke, here's the copy of my report that you forgot. I just wanted to stop by and let you know that Mom says I can come to the diner tomorrow for a while. Is that OK?"

"No school?" he asked, fisting the report in his right hand, while his left still held tightly to Lorelai's.

"We have the whole week off," she said matter-of-factly.

He looked at Lorelai again, then said, "Yeah, I guess. Sounds good." At that, April left, saying goodbye to the adults.

Rory, Lorelai and Luke stood silent, in a noiseless Mexican standoff. The ringing of the bells shook Lorelai out of her shock. She turned unfocused eyes on Luke. She willed herself to speak. "When did you …?"

"On the sixteenth." His shame burned in his chest.

"The sixteenth? That was weeks ago!"

"Yeah."

"We promised to tell each other everything," she said softly, wresting her hand from his. An urge to run nearly overwhelmed her.

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

Lorelai looked around the diner, thankfully devoid of the most gossipy townspeople. It was strange, she thought, how her bones could suddenly become like Jello. She decided that, no matter what, she was not going to collapse in the diner. She was not going to make a scene. She was not going to stay here any longer.

Her voice shook as she spoke again. "We have to talk."

Luke looked at her, a flash of hope breaking through his shame. "Anytime, anyplace."

"Not here. Not now." Her hands began to visibly tremble. As Luke reached out to her, she stepped back, moving closer to Rory. Luke dropped his hands impotently.

"Tonight when you come home, OK? We'll talk then, OK?"

"OK. Tonight. Whenever you want. Call me if you need me earlier, promise?"

A cold chuckle escaped her. "Promise? Bad word, Luke, bad word."

With that, she and Rory escaped.


	2. Empowerment

CS 2 Empowerment

* * *

Luke left the diner just a little earlier than his normal stopping time while Caesar and Lane closed. He'd hoped Lorelai would call him to come earlier so they could have this out, but she didn't call. He spent the rest of the afternoon in self-inflicted purgatory, wishing he had taken even one of those countless opportunities to tell her earlier. Mostly he wished he'd gone home the first day April came in and said to Lorelai, "You won't believe what happened to me today. This kid wearing a crazy bike helmet came in and told me I might be her father." That would have solved everything. Lorelai wouldn't hate him. He would have had her advice. He would know what Lorelai would have done in the same situation. They would have laughed together and figured out what to do together.

Instead he screwed up. Almost immediately after it was made, he violated their newest promise to tell each other everything. He shuddered as he walked the last block to the Crap Shack. Blowing out a deep breath, he climbed the steps and went to meet his fate. He deserved a shitload of trouble like only Lorelai Gilmore could give. The guilt he loaded on himself.

"Lorelai?" he asked as he closed the door.

The house was eerily quiet; only a couple of table lamps glowed in the living room. Luke pushed his fears aside, removed his jacket, cap and boots. Sniffing his flannel, he made a loop through the laundry room to swap out his work clothes for a dark blue Henley, then padded to the living room in his stocking feet.

"Come here, Luke," said a familiar voice out of the near-darkness. "Come sit with me."

Silence was all he heard after that. Silence from Lorelai Gilmore sounded like a death sentence.

If he didn't know the gravity of the situation, he might have believed that Lorelai had planned a romantic evening for them. In addition to the lamps she had lighted several candles and had a bottle of wine with two glasses on the table. Luke peered at the bottle. It was nearly gone. Lorelai must have been sitting there for hours.

Lorelai's knees and feet were drawn up on the sofa, so Luke sat on the floor in front of her and tucked one arm under her knees, rubbing her thigh gently with his other hand.

He fingered the satin hem of her pajama pants before scanning her face, where he saw the hurt that made her squinch up her eyes until they were nearly slits. She silently put a glass of wine in his hands. She clinked glasses with him and they drank without saying a word.

She reached down in the corner of the sofa and pulled out a small photo album. Her squinch softened as she flipped through the pages, stopping when she found what she was looking for.

"Look," she smiled, "this is the first picture we have of you in our album."

The snapshot, its skewed composition indicating it had been taken by a laughing Lorelai, was of some summer festival years ago in the town square. Luke and Rory, plastic beads around her neck, stood side by side as Sookie tried to get them to take cookies from her basket. Rory was beaming with pride as she held out her beads, and Luke was self-consciously smiling at whatever charming nonsense Lorelai had uttered to get him to react.

"Rory dragged you out of the diner grumbling, but you came anyway. She wanted to win a prize at some throwing game, and I had tried, but you know me and sports." She shrugged diffidently. "Disgusted with me, she marched over to the diner and dragged you out by the hand. You couldn't say no, and she got that light-up necklace as her prize. Do you remember?"

Luke ducked his head, thought for a moment, then shook his head. "It couldn't have taken more than fifteen minutes. I was probably back in the diner before anyone noticed I was gone."

The wine in her glass rippled as she suddenly squinched her eyes again. Luke's heart ached, knowing he had caused that pain. "At that moment I knew that you would be in our lives forever."

He bounced his forehead against her knee as an apology. "You're not gonna throw things at me? Yell? Kick my ass?" For a brief moment he wished Rory were here too. She looked very ready to kick his ass this afternoon.

She gently ran her fingers through his hair, resting her hand on the back of his neck as she fingered the curls just starting to get too long. "You have a daughter. April is going to be Rory's sister. She's going to be my daughter. Luke, we deserved to know from the very beginning."

Luke let his arms fall to his side, wondering if he could dig himself into the floor. He hadn't even considered Lorelai and Rory in this. Her loving reprimand branded guilt into his heart.

"I know. I screwed up. It's just that it's so damn confusing. I feel like I'm off-balance all the time."

She smiled, knowing that nothing felt worse to Luke than a feeling of being out of control. "Let's get you back in balance, then. Tell me what happened." She coaxed him to sit down and she cuddled up next to him, entwining her body with his as much as possible to give him comfort.

Awash with relief that Lorelai was so understanding, Luke poured his story out to her, starting with the hair pull, going to the meeting in the park and Anna's very reluctant agreement to let April visit Luke.

"So Anna was your girlfriend …"

"We dated," he corrected, "on and off for a few months about, well, 13 years ago. We didn't even get along."

Eventually Lorelai stood up, keeping herself busy cleaning up the detritus from her stomped-grape meditation. Remembering the night Sookie and Jackson came over for hamburgers, she dreaded what had to come next.

Struggling to keep her voice steady, she asked, "You sent Anna a check for back child support?"

"Yeah, of course," he replied in his normal self-deprecating manner, like he always did when he manned up to do the right thing. "If I'd known about April from the beginning, I would have done it earlier. No reason not to do it now."

"Why didn't you tell us when you asked Rory about child support?" The more she thought about how many times they were together in the past weeks, the more her irritation increased.

He heaved a sigh. "Lorelai, you guys were getting ready to leave for Atlantic City. You didn't have anything on your mind except Rory's twenty-first birthday trip. Would you really have wanted me to say something then?"

Her anger flared. "No, I wanted you to tell me the day April pulled your hair!"

She approached him, hands clutching her upper arms. When she got close, she put her hands on his shoulders, shaking him in frustration.

"Luke, this was big news! There were like dozens of other days you could have told me. You could have woken me up in the middle of the night. Spelled it out in Mallomars. Sent a candygram. Balloons. Chartered an airplane banner!"

He broke her grip on him and stepped back an inch or so. "I get it, Lorelai! I have no excuse. That's why I'm sorry."

She stalked over to the telephone stand, where she'd left her purse. Pulling Christopher's check out of its envelope she went back to Luke.

"Did you pay the child support already?"

"Yeah, I sent off a check last weekend to cover support for the first twelve years."

"Luke, we've got to talk."

"Huh? I thought we were talking."

"You remember the phone call from Christopher?"

Luke winced at the mention of his name. "The one we listened to the day after that dinner with Sookie and Jackson? Yeah." He thought that after they had spoken about it in the apartment that night, and listened to the message together, that it was all over.

"I called him back and Rory and I went together to find out what his big news was. Turns out he inherited some money and wanted to give us some. After some talking, Rory wanted two things – one, that he pay for Yale, and two, that he pay me back child support, like you paid Anna."

"You called him and went to see him without telling me? God, we suck at telling each other everything."

Shrugging, she picked up her purse from the place on the floor where she'd dropped it and removed Christopher's envelope.

"Today I got this in the mail. Child support for half of Rory's upbringing." She held the check in front of his face.

"Holy crap! Fifty thousand dollars? Is he insane?"

"I don't know what to do with this check, Luke. Should I keep it? Return it?"

"You can't keep it. That would be crazy."

"Why would it be crazy? Would it be crazy for Anna to keep your money?"

"No, but that's different."

"Different how?"

As he paced back and forth, finally stopping at the fireplace, Luke slapped his hands to the top of his head, squeezed his eyes shut and groaned. "I don't know, Lorelai. It's Christopher. He … he doesn't do things like this!"

"Well, he did this time! Now I have to decide what to do about it, and frankly, I don't see how it's any different from your situation." Her voice grew louder, far louder than needed to cover the distance across the living room.

He roared back, "Well, what do you want to do?"

She stared, her blue eyes seeing not Luke, here in her house, but Luke everywhere in Stars Hollow after their last breakup, as deeply hurt as she was because of Emily's and Christopher's actions. That was not going to be repeated.

She met his roar with equal force. "I don't know either! Whatever I do, I'm not going to let anything Christopher does get between us again! Do you hear me, Luke Danes?"

"I hear you! Good! What now?" he shouted back.

"You'd better kiss me right now!" Her eyes blazed as she dropped the check and moved around the coffee table towards him.

He moved simultaneously in the opposite direction around the table. They froze, but in one quick move Luke stepped up on the coffee table and took one long stride towards Lorelai. His long legs combined with his stockinged feet landed his foot on the far edge of the table and it promptly slipped off, causing him to collapse onto the table. His other leg had caught up to the first just in time to trip Lorelai, who had been launching herself at him. She completed her landing awkwardly, their bodies stretched out on the table.

"No giggling," warned Luke as he wrapped his arms around an already-tittering Lorelai. She pushed herself up on him, saying, "Nice move, Grace," and kissed him.

* * *

"Luke Danes, daddy. Sounds great, doesn't it?" asked the naked woman lying on top of said daddy.

"Scares me shitless." He ran his fingers through Lorelai's damp curls, her face still glowing from their exertion.

"Why? You had a decade of practice with Rory. She turned out just fine."

"That's all you. I just watched in awe. Now I have to do it myself and I have no clue where to begin. I've only talked to April four times, and that includes the two minutes today when you met her."

As they settled under the covers, a sleepy Lorelai turned to him one more time. "Luke, you've been doing the daddy thing with Rory for ten years now. Just think about all the things you did for her. Do that with April, and you'll be Father of the Year."

Snuggled close to her fiancé, Lorelai was quickly asleep. Like so many nights in the past few weeks, Luke stared at the ceiling, pondering the day's events, which he could push away no further.

When they married, Lorelai and Rory would be related to April as well. It's not just about him and April. Not just about him and Lorelai. Not only was he a father now, but he would soon be the head of a family of four. Just like his own father.

The worst of all, Lorelai had told him he was in the same position as Christopher: deadbeat dad. The guy who didn't know his own daughter.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

"Hey kiddo, it's about time," said Lorelai as Rory sat down at her table.

"Here," said Rory, dropping a box of gourmet coffee, a fruit basket and a huge potted plant on the floor next to her mother.

Lorelai's eyebrows peaked. "Logan's still trying to worm his way in?"

"Oh yeah," she said with a thin smile. "The best was still having my own coffee guy for a day."

"I wonder if I can convince Luke to follow me around all day with coffee," mused Lorelai.

"Coffee and coffee," muttered Luke as he reached their table. He eyed the plant and gifts on the floor next to Lorelai. "You're taking those with you when you go, right?"

"Nope," she smirked. "They're gifts for you! We're going to put the plant right next to the cash register, and this will be my personal coffee stash. You can keep a pot of Lorelai on the burner for whenever I come in."

He scowled. "You're gonna coffee-cheat on me in my own diner? Cold, Lorelai. That's just cold." He turned to Rory. "You're responsible for her behavior, are you? Where did this crap come from?"

"Logan," she replied.

"Ah, the boyfriend. Still trying to worm his way back in?"

"Yep. Hasn't worked yet."

"He's an ass. Let me know if you need help getting rid of the body," He teased, giving her a small wink.

"Here's a down payment on the hit, Luke," she giggled, handing him a basket of fruit from Harry and David.

"Whoa, that's nice. I heard their pears are the best. Thanks." He hefted a pear in his hand and smelled it, then took a bite. "Good. Maybe you should let him hang on a while longer. I'll get your food."

After Luke disappeared into the kitchen, Rory leaned over to her mother. "You guys must have had a talk. He's in an awfully good mood."

"Yeah," said Lorelai. "We had a big argument about April, which led into your dad's check for back child support, but we worked it all out."

"Did it get loud?"

"Not quite Motorhead loud, but loud enough," she said with a grimace at the memory of last night's argument.

She continued with a summary of the agreements they'd reached this morning. "We're good on April; on the same page and that sort of thing. I decided that I'm going to cash Christopher's child support check and open an emergency fund for adult child care."

"Adult child care?"

"If my daughter needs some emergency cash for, say, rent, or pizza, or a major Sephora trip, then I've got it covered."

Luke brought their food out, but within half a minute Lorelai had turned up her nose. "What's that?" she whined as she pointed to the fruit on her plate.

"Two pieces of the best pear you'll ever eat."

"More like the best pear I'll never eat."

"Rory, you've got the same. Only those who eat their pears get cheesecake for dessert." He turned on his heel and headed back to the counter.

"Curses!" complained Lorelai. "He's taking this daddy thing a little too seriously. Here, eat my pear."

"No cheesecake for you!" he barked without turning around.

As they were finishing their meal, April walked in. She went directly to the counter, and the girls watched Luke awkwardly greet his daughter.

The interaction stumbled along for a short time, with April first filling salt and pepper shakers while Luke continued to work. Later she sat at the counter and told him about her school and what she'd been doing on this week off.

"I think he's sweating," said Rory as she peered at Luke.

"He's really nervous and wants to do a good job. I think the fact that Anna hid this from him has upset him."

"That's understandable," agreed Rory. "I mean, how would you feel if you suddenly discovered your child was walking around in the world and you knew nothing about them?"

"Rory, honey, I'm very confident that I know where all of my children are," chortled Lorelai.

They got up and went to the counter to pay. As they stood in line, April came over.

"Hi Lorelai, hi Rory," she said shyly.

"Hi April, how are you doing? Do you like the diner?" asked Lorelai.

"Yeah, sure, it's nice. Luke's kinda busy, though."

Lorelai scrunched up her nose like a bunny. "That happens a lot."

"So Luke says you're getting married June third," April commented. "I'd sure like to hear more about the wedding plans, when you've got time."

Lorelai decided to tread carefully. "How about if you start by asking Luke? If there are still more questions I can fill in those details later."

"Ask Luke what?" he said as he held out his hand for Lorelai's bill and cash.

She waved her hand. "Oh you two will sort it out yourselves," she said lightly. As she turned to go, she leaned over to April and said in a low voice, "Ask him to tell you about your Aunt Liz' wedding. It was the first time he asked me to dance."

She gave them a little wave before she walked Rory to her car, then went back to work.

* * *

Lorelai was walking down the street when she spotted a hot guy turning the corner and moving steadily about 50 feet ahead of her.

She increased her pace to as much of a run as her heels would allow. Getting close enough for him to hear her, she called, "Hey hot stuff! Nice flannel. Take it off!"

Luke stopped abruptly, hung his head as passersby smiled indulgently, then turned around with a smirk. He broke her momentum by putting a hand on her shoulder, leaned in and whispered, "What would you do if I did?"

She laughed out loud that the audacity of his remark. "Then I would sell tickets. That sight alone would pay for our wedding," she teased. "Where are you going, sugar lips?"

"Huh," he commented on her joke nebulously. "To the bank." He waved his blue deposit bag.

"Great minds think alike! I'm going there to set up Rory's account. You can fill out your signature cards while we're there."

He scowled. "Signature cards?" he asked.

"Sure. For my bank accounts and this account for Rory."

"Why?"

Pushing the door to the bank open, she nonchalantly replied, "'Cause you're my next of kin, hubby-to-be. You get to make all the decisions should I become incapacitated."

He grinned to hide the jolt that the next of kin comment had brought. Busying himself in the revolving door as he followed her, he joked, "So if I refuse you coffee, that will incapacitate you and I can cut off your shoe buying? Sweet."

Her threats of revenge were cut off as they reached the counter and completed their business. Leaving the bank, Lorelai noticed the Post Office across the street.

"Oh, let's get you some change of address cards. I know you've told some people, but mailing out a few cards wouldn't hurt."

Another jolt hit Luke. He'd moved, sure, whatever there was room for, but since everyone in Stars Hollow knew that he'd moved in with Lorelai, he didn't see a need for formality. Anyone coming from out of town would naturally go to the diner first, wouldn't they?

She ran into the Post Office and grabbed a small stack of cards.

Pressing them into his hand, she kissed him soundly, saying, "I am so happy that you moved in already."

He smiled automatically as he stared at the cards in his hand. Noticing his confusion, she said, "How about if I take care of this for you? It won't take but a few minutes and I can squeeze it in while I do my books at the Dragonfly this afternoon." She tucked the cards into her purse and her arm into his. "Now escort me back to that fine eating establishment of yours and buy me a cup of coffee to go. Michel probably has smoke coming out of his ears by now."

* * *

"Hey, doll," said Lorelai as Luke came in the door of the Crap Shack.

A weary Luke wrapped his arms around his fiancée and held her, taking strength from her after his long day at the diner. Two sick workers kept him running all day, until he finally closed early when there were few patrons.

"Rory just called, she's got some free time and invited us to take her out to dinner in New Haven. Are you up for it?"

He sighed. "Not really, I'd like to go to bed, actually."

"Alone?" she asked, adding, "I could stay if you like."

He hung up his jacket and cap, stretching his back. "Nah, you go ahead. I'm gonna check the sports scores then crash."

"Well, if you're sure," Lorelai said doubtfully. "You look like something's on your mind. You sure you're OK?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Give Rory a hug for me." He kissed her again and started moving toward the living room.

Lorelai pulled on her jacket, flipped and fluffed her hair and headed for the door. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. A couple of days ago I sent off the change of address cards for you. I got Maisy and Buddy, Liz's Renaissance Fair base in Maine, and Mia. I thought for a while I'd have to ask you for the Nardini's address, but it turns out there's only one Nardini in the Woodbridge phone book." She smiled mischievously. "Since there was one card left over, I sent it to Emily. I figured it was the best way to let her know you moved in."

Luke scoffed. "It's the best way to have her pounding this door down." The last thing in the world he needed to think about was how to handle an Emily hell-bent on controlling her daughter's morality.

With a smirk and a blown kiss, Lorelai closed the door. Kicking off his boots, he went to the kitchen, made a sandwich and grabbed a beer before collapsing on the sofa and turning on the sports news.

Right at the peak of the baseball scores the phone rang.

"Hello, Luke," said Emily in response to his greeting. "How are you settling in?"

He rolled his eyes, sensing the animosity behind her nuanced tones. "Fine, thanks, Emily. Uh, Lorelai's not here." With any luck she'd hang up quickly.

"Oh, I'm perfectly happy chatting with you for a minute," she said coolly. "How's your daughter? Lorelai told me about her."

"Fine. It's still all kinda new, you know?"

"Of course. Luke, It's absolutely unconscionable that a mother should hide a child from her parent. If you decide you need a lawyer or anything, don't hesitate to let us know, OK? I have lots of contacts that specialize in custody cases."

Surprised at such a cordial offer, he stammered out a thank you, then added, "Her mother's being OK about this so far, so I hope it stays good."

"Well, keep it in mind. You never know what can happen. I've seen some nasty custody battles. Another thing - Lorelai was starting to think about reviewing her insurance. Richard told me to tell you that he'd be happy to look over yours at any time as well."

After exchanging the last usual pleasantries, Emily rang off. Luke sat back in the sofa and pondered the idea of a second beer. He was clueless about what Emily really wanted. Somehow he didn't think she called just to say hello to him, and he couldn't imagine her ever voluntarily offering help.

He ran his hand over his face and wished he'd considered a shot of whiskey when the phone rang again. This time it was Anna.

"Luke, you moved without telling me?" she demanded.

Shit. He'd already forgotten that Lorelai had sent a card to Anna and April. "Look, Anna, I needed a place with more space for April. She will eventually be staying over every once in a while.'

"Oh really? You should have discussed this with me beforehand! How can I trust you with my daughter if you behave like this?"

Luke was at the end of his patience for the day and barked back, "Look! I'm less than three minutes away from the diner. You don't get a say in where I live, Anna!"

"We'll just see about that, Luke!" she practically shouted before she hung up on him.

"Enough," he muttered to himself. He set the answering machine to silent mode and went to bed.

Lying there, he knew that tonight was not going to be any different from the last several days. Exhausted, he would fall asleep quickly, but he woke again like clockwork three and a half hours later. Then he'd lie awake, thinking about all of these problems, until shortly before time to get up, when he'd catch maybe another hour's worth of sleep.

April. The wedding. Being a father, husband and stepfather. Now Emily and Anna. Insurance. Next of kin. Address changes. This was all too much to deal with at once. He rolled over, pulled Lorelai's pillow to him and fell into a fitful slumber.

Three and a half hours later, he awoke, all of the issues rushing into his head at once. He reached over and rubbed Lorelai's shoulder for comfort as she lay quietly in a deep sleep.

Out of all the things that bugged him, April bugged him the most. She came to the diner, was polite, answered when he asked questions, but he got the feeling she was completely indifferent to him. If he were to disappear off the face of the earth, she would stay in Woodbridge and never think twice about him except as an unsuccessful science fair project.

He wanted to be her father; felt a deep responsibility to do the right thing, but she and Anna acted almost as if he was a curiosity they looked at in the zoo. Anna took every opportunity to delay visits, or tell him what he was doing wrong. Lorelai, on the other hand, believed he had everything under control. She trusted him; she told him he would do the parenting thing right, simply because he had been there for Rory, and Rory had turned out all right.

He had nothing under control: not his wedding, his child, not even sleep. He pounded his head into the pillow and waited for the hours to pass.

* * *

Luke and Lorelai were cuddled on the sofa gently bickering over the television. Finally winning for once, Luke was watching an interview with the baseball commissioner and Lorelai was reviewing some Dragonfly paperwork when her cell phone rang.

Lorelai tensed as she heard the greeting. "Christopher, hello."

Luke's face darkened as he deliberately stared at the TV screen. Even though everyone in the universe knew that an interview with the baseball commissioner was about as interesting as watching Lorelai pick out paint colors, it became his sole focus in life.

"What's up, Christopher?" Lorelai asked, keeping an eagle eye on Luke, expecting him to bolt at any time.

Torn between shoving his fist down the cell phone line and running, Luke decided he was better off channeling his inner Butch. Time to leave the room. He muted the TV, but cringed when he noticed Lorelai eyeing him suspiciously.

She shook her head and waved her free hand at him energetically, trying to get him to stay, but he stood up anyway.

"Ah, so Rory told you that the wedding plans are moving forward?"

She reached out for Luke, but only managed a light grasp on the bottom of his flannel. He shook his head as well and slowly started moving toward the kitchen.

He'd gone only a couple of steps when she launched herself at him, landing clumsily and hard on the floor. She had her prize, though, because now she had a firm grasp on the hem of his jeans.

"What, Chris? No, something was getting away from me, but I caught it just in time."

She rolled onto her front, her eyes pleading with Luke to sit back down. He tried to move his captive leg, succeeding in dragging Lorelai a few inches across the carpet.

"Ow! Ow! Rug burn!" she cried as her tummy was pulled across the rough carpet.

Luke knew he was lost, so he shooed her back to the sofa and sighed as he sat next to her.

Lorelai made a sad face at him and pointed to the slightly pink area where he'd dragged her. He rolled his eyes, which she parried with a pout. She touched his lips then her belly, to which he shook his head again.

The pout came out in double strength as she continued her conversation. Grimacing, Luke pecked her belly, taking revenge with a brief tickle, getting a quick slap on the hand in return. She converted her pout into a grin.

"No, Christopher, you don't get to hear what we decided to do with the child support. We made our decision as a family and no one else needs to know about it."

After his response, she added, "Rory, Luke and I. That check affected all of us."

Luke's heart leapt. The family he'd always imagined in his mind was made real by Lorelai.

"Well, it would have been nicer if we'd had that money when Rory was actually growing up. Of course, we would have wasted it on luxuries like food, the mortgage and utilities." Her smile got bigger when she realized Luke smirked at that comment.

"Gigi? The only advice I have for you is to use some of that pile of money you inherited to hire a team of nannies. She's uncontrollable unless you get some expert help."

A pause while Christopher apparently cajoled her to help.

"No, I only know how to raise a kid like Rory, you know, one who listens and does what she's told. You might try Doctor Spock."

"No, the baby expert, not the Star Trek character." She rolled her eyes at Luke.

Luke snorted at that one. "Mister Spock," he hissed out a correction.

"You want to get us a wedding present? That's really not necessary, Chris." Luke's jaw clenched.

"No."

"No."

"How about a salad spinner? Or maybe some of those weird little forks that nobody knows what to eat with them?"

"Yes, Chris. No, Chris. That's fine. Bye."

She flipped her phone shut and flopped back onto the sofa. She squeezed his knee and looked sadly at him.

"Luke, I'm sorry if this makes you mad, but I have bad news for you."

He couldn't believe his ears. This wasn't the way the conversation went according to what he heard. He looked at the ground, wondering what she was going to say.

She smiled sympathetically. "I know it's been your dream to have a stone cottage on a fishing lake in Scotland, but I told him no."

"Scotland, huh?" he asked. "That's a lot farther away than the cabin on Wallace Lake. Hard to drive to."

She shrugged. "That's why I thought a salad spinner would be better."

"You don't eat salad, and I don't 'spin' my salads."

"Yep," she smiled. "Sounds like the perfect wedding gift. Easy to exchange."

He chuckled. "Good idea. By the way, did I ever tell you how smart you are?"

"Of course, you're a smart man. Do you know what else you can use a salad spinner for?"

Luke chuckled. "Like what?"

Lorelai straddled his legs, settling herself on his knees. "I can wash my unmentionables, like that little blue number you're so fond of. Or your silk boxers."

"I never wear those," he mumbled as he nibbled her neck.

"There's always spin art. I can make pretty paintings. Or washing paint brushes. Cleaning marbles."

"You don't have any marbles," he grunted as her hips began a seductive dance.

"Must have lost them. Wanna go upstairs and look for them?"

"Another brilliant idea," he said as he led her up the stairs.

* * *

Lorelai woke up the next morning, feeling like Scarlett O'Hara Butler the morning after they'd had angry drunken sex. In other words, totally in love.

She was proud of the way she'd handled Christopher, who'd behaved in his usual over the top way, still trying to give her gifts that she neither wanted nor welcomed, trying to weasel an invitation to a wedding that he would most definitely not be invited to.

She was thrilled with the way Luke responded; she was certain he appreciated listening to her side of the phone conversation. He definitely showed his appreciation for the outcome of the call. Twice that night.

Now, he was showing it again. Anytime he ran late going to work, he left coffee and a note to eat at the diner. Today she smelled bacon.

Choosing the most Scarlett O'Hara of her robes, she tied the satin belt around her waist and swept down the stairs, hoping to make a grand entrance. Since, however, Luke was busy in the kitchen, Paul Anka was her only audience, and, being asleep, was distinctly unimpressed.

"What's a girl gotta do to get a kiss around here?" she asked, posing in the doorway.

"Come close enough to me," he stated dryly. "I'm busy flipping and frying here, but I might be able to squeeze in a kiss or two."

She came up from behind and snaked her arms around his waist. Luke flipped the pancakes and put the bacon to drain on paper towels, then turned off the burners. He sensed that this was a kiss that might take some time, and he had no interest in repeating the 'you burned my bacon' catastrophe of a couple of months ago.

"Good morning," he said after they broke for air the first time.

"You're late for work," she replied, burying her face in his neck, delighting in the aftershave and bacon smell. "Mmm. They should make bacon-flavored aftershave."

"Not late any more, I called Caesar and he'll handle it alone or call Lane in for a couple of hours."

"Good to hear. I like having extra time with you in the morning." Lorelai took a big bite from a piece of bacon, then nudged the rest against Luke's lips.

He gave her his trademark 'what are you thinking' look, which was completely ignored, so he took a small bite. Remembering their no secrets promise, he filed the fact that the occasional piece of bacon disappeared from the plate when he was cooking alone into the stack of allowable secrets, like Christmas present secrets and the secret that pie disappeared from the diner coincidentally whenever Lorelai slept over.

"Luke."

"Mmmm-hmmm," he replied, savoring the bacon flavor.

"I love you," she said simply.

OK, he thought, that was much better than bacon. His happiest grin spread across his face. "I think I've heard that a time or two."

"That you have, my friend, I recall saying it occasionally."

"Is it coming today because of the bacon?"

"No, although I might well fall for any man who could cook bacon as well as you do."

"Keep your hands off other men's bacon."

"Huh-huh. Dirty."

She kissed him again and pulled his hips to hers. "No, this is about a big box of rocks."

He pondered the box of rocks as he rested his forehead against hers. "You've lost me. Tell me more," he conceded.

"Rory came home from school in eighth grade, enthusiastically talking about a science demo her teacher did. I forgot what the sciency-thing was about, but I know it's all about us."

"Us?"

"When I came to Stars Hollow, it was just me and Rory. That's two big rocks in the box."

"Then Stars Hollow was a much smaller rock, followed by Mia, and my work, and all the townies I met. Even my parents are in there. So you see, the box was getting fuller." She looked to see if he was following, and he nodded, encouraging her to continue.

"When I walked into the diner the first time, it added two more pretty big rocks to the box. First, the diner became my third place, the place where I knew I could always go. Second, the coffee guy became my lifeline to caffeinated happiness." She smirked in answer to Luke's slightly surprised look. "Yes, you reminded me of a big rock." She chuckled to herself while he let her tease him.

"Even though I thought the box was getting pretty full, you started dropping pebbles in and they amazing fit. Pebbles like fixing my porch, encouraging me in my dreams, listening to story after agonizing story about my parents."

Silent from the emotion bubbling up in his chest, he ruffled her hair and pulled her closer.

"Just when I thought nothing more could fit, a kiss at the Dragonfly filled the box with the finest kernels of sand. I was so happy and excited, and I knew the box was full."

She laughed at her foolishness. "But I was so wrong. When I saw the horoscope, and we had our first night together, and we made up after the big fight, those things were quietly filling the box with water, filling in spaces I didn't even know existed. Filling the box with love."

"Luke, I love you so much that I can't even picture myself not loving you. I wouldn't want you out of my life any more that I would pour out those precious rocks, and sand and water that you put into my life."

He pressed her to him while he breathed hard, trying to compose himself. Wiping the stray drops of water that must have come from cooking, because they certainly didn't fall from his eyes, he kissed her hair and held her some more.

"Luke? That was one of my best rambles. Nothing to say?"

Eventually he was able to face her without being a blubbering mess. "I love you, Lorelai."

"There's my monosyllabic man."

"No, no, there's more," he insisted. "From the horoscope to today, it's like my life is real in a way that it wasn't before you came into it. I can't imagine my life without you in it now."

Lorelai's tears pressed themselves out of her eyes until she could compose herself enough to demand breakfast.

They sat close together as they ate, some body part or another always touching, caressing when possible. The love was deeper, more secure than before.

"I'm still struggling with this April thing, Lorelai. It's just not working yet, but I really want to get to know her better. Anna's making it really hard; she's always changing the date or canceling April's visit altogether."

"I know, hon, but it's gonna take time."

"I don't have time!" he complained. "She's twelve! She'll be in college before we know it, and I won't know anything about her."

He continued morosely eating his oatmeal, while Lorelai rubbed his shoulder in sympathy.

Looking up at her, he said, "I think I need some time alone with her."

"Sure," she agreed. "What do you want to do?"

"Well, Anna's letting her come to the diner sometimes. I think I kinda need to have some exclusive time with her there, just the two of us, you know?"

"I guess," conceded Lorelai uncertainly.

"Yeah?" He smiled. "That would be great. Reminds me of watching you and Rory bond. That's something I'd like to have with April."

"Sure, sure, that's great." She garnered her courage, remembered how much he loved her, and pushed her doubt off to the side.

"Yeah?" he repeated himself as he put the dirty dishes away. "Good, good. Um, it's getting late, Caesar will probably kill me if I show up much later. You're coming in for lunch?"

"You bet, maybe a little later than usual."

She stood up and Luke grabbed her in a big hug. "Good, I'll see you then."

He left for work while Lorelai tried to scrub her doubts away along with the dirt on the dishes.

* * *

Tom and Lorelai walked into the diner together.

"I'll just say hi to Luke, and then we can get started," she said as Tom chose a table near the counter.

"Hey, sweet lips," she said as she approached Luke as he stood near the cash register.

Luke snapped upright as he noticed Lorelai. "Oh, uh, you're here," he said haltingly, color rising slightly in his cheeks at her pet name.

"Lorelai, hi!" said April cheerily.

They exchanged a few words of greeting, with Lorelai cutting it short, saying, "You'll excuse me, I've got a meeting over here, OK?"

"Sure," said April. "I'm trying to get my homework done so I can go to my friend's house tonight."

Luke shifted uncomfortably during the interchange, tossing concerned looks at Lorelai as Tom observed from his seat. It was weird that Lorelai sat over there instead of right in front of him. He'd imagined that she simply wouldn't be in the diner when April came over.

Additionally, April was still standoffish. She'd come voluntarily, but after a few minutes chat she turned to her homework and it looked like she'd spend the rest of her visit getting that out of the way so she could be with her friends later that evening.

"He'll be over in a minute to take our orders," Lorelai confidently predicted. She was a little hurt when Lane was sent to take their order. It was the first time since they started dating that Luke hadn't served her when he was working.

"He's a dumbass," commented Tom before launching into their complex discussion about the modifications and repairs needed on the Dragonfly. An influx of cash from good publicity and word of mouth was allowing them to improve the little touches that would bring in a better clientele.

When April stepped to the restroom for a minute, Luke took Lorelai aside to speak with a little privacy. "I uh, I thought you weren't coming in today?" he asked.

"No, I never said that. I told you about my meeting with Tom. He wanted to come here, and you know there's no place I'd rather eat," she smiled as she ran her fingers along the buttons of his flannel. Luke stepped back a pace as April returned to the counter.

"Like I said, he's a dumbass, Lorelai. Don't let him get away with that stupid behavior," cautioned Tom once they were on their way back to the Dragonfly.

"No, Tom, he's right. He's working so hard to build a relationship with his daughter. He needs all the support I can give him," she said unconvincingly. Luke had never pushed her away so clearly, and he'd never ignored her in the diner unless he was mad at her.

A tense discussion that night was avoided when Lorelai simply took Luke's repeated wish for her to step away and accepted it.

The next time April was there, Lorelai held to her agreement. She was in the diner when April came in, but moved away from the counter to join Andrew as she enjoyed her pie and coffee. As soon as Luke stepped into the kitchen to give Caesar some directions and help manage the cooking, April came to her table again.

Having already asked Luke all the questions she could think of concerning the diner, her inquisitive mind turned to the Inn. How did an inn work, what were the major activities, how did they plan for guests, she peppered her future stepmother with questions as fast as Lorelai could answer them.

Yet again, Lorelai felt the negative vibes coming from him as he maintained a judgmental position near the cash register. This time, however, she rebelliously let April decide for herself when she was going back to the counter.

"What were you thinking?" asked Luke petulantly that evening, when they were home alone.

She spread her hands, palms open. "I didn't go to her. I didn't interrupt you. Luke, you need to understand that she wants to know her family as well as her father."

"Don't you understand? Anna keeps threatening to take her away! She's so damn controlling."

"What? She can't take her away. You're her father! You have rights, Luke."

"Arrgh. It's just too much. Too much all at once!" He stalked into the kitchen and stared unseeingly into the fridge.

"Luke, honey," pleaded Lorelai. "You have no choice. It's here now. It can't be avoided."

Slamming the fridge door closed, he sagged against the counter. After a moment, he popped up straight, saying, "I think I need to go to the diner tonight."

A shudder passed through Lorelai. Running back to the diner. Again. Only this time it wasn't due to Christopher, it was simply that his stresses were too much. He was going back to his cave. His sanctuary.

"OK," she said waveringly.

"OK?" The minute the words were out of his mouth, Luke expected an argument. Lorelai would sharpen her tongue on his lack of commitment. He hadn't expected her to agree.

"OK," she nodded furiously, pounding the statement into the ground with her head to make it more real.

"Let's go pack," Lorelai added, taking his hand and going upstairs. "We probably ought to take a couple of days' clothes to leave there, right? In case we want to stay more than one night."

"I, uh, I don't understand."

She pulled out a large tote bag and began putting their pajamas and daytime clothes in it. Holding up his green flannel and a blue and red one, she waved them at him, wanting him to choose. When no answer came, she put both into the bag.

"I'm your fiancée, Luke. I am not going to be in the same town as you and not sleep in your bed. Non-negotiable."

Luke's shoulders slumped, relieved to stop carrying the burden of anticipated argument. "You're really OK with this?"

"I'm a lot more OK with this than you just running off somewhere alone." She ignored the righteous Rory-voice inside her head, telling her Luke needed his stuff.

She showed him a selection of satin pj tops, then lifted her eyebrows. He took them all and put them in the bag. Without asking she added her pink feather trimmed high-heeled slippers. He grinned.

She added one of the many pair of still-unused silk boxers to the bag. Luke reached into the drawer and added some cotton boxers. He ran his hands up her arms, pulling her close. His lips hovered millimeters away from hers.

"It won't be forever, you know. Just once in a while. Until the crazy ends."

She giggled. "I thought you already knew."

"What?" he mumbled, his lips and hands blazing a trail across her neck and back.

"With me the crazy never ends."

Slipping on her jacket, she grabbed the duffle and followed Luke downstairs.

"Wanna hear my going to the diner song? _Where you lead, I will follow, anywhere that you tell me to. Where the coff-, oh where the coffee is, I will follow where you brew."_

* * *

"That's my point, Mom," repeated Rory superciliously, wondering if her cell phone was garbling her words. That's what I was telling you weeks ago. He needs his stuff around him."

Lorelai bristled. "All I was telling you was how cute it was that he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow in the apartment."

"And I'm still telling you that if you had more of his stuff in the house you SHARE, he'll stop needing to go to the apartment."

Lorelai's thoughts drifted back to last night, after Jon Stewart was over. Luke had been fast asleep for a while. After she turned the TV off, she lay next to him, twisting the dark curls at the nape of his neck around her fingers. His arm reached out and landed on her hip, slowly moving over the curves in a gentle caress. She whispered in his ear, and without opening his eyes, he mumbled his response.

"You know what was really funny? He was sleeping, but he rolled over when I was still sitting there awake, and I asked him what he liked about being in the apartment. He said, 'Smells good.' Smells good? How crazy is that? The Crap Shack smells great!"

Rory tittered. "Crap usually has a smell too, Mom."

Sniffing at Rory's lame joke, she continued, "How am I supposed to fix a smell? Go into the apartment and bring all the smelly things home? There are some pretty ripe fishing clothes still hanging there. Maybe I ought to keep those in your room."

Rory hadn't wanted to antagonize her mother, and needed to get back to her internship job, so she placated her. "You'll figure it out. You always do. We're on for lunch later this week, right?"

"And then there's the time he cooked cabbage. What was he thinking? Cabbage smell never leaves a house. Did you know he cooked Indian curry too? I threatened to burn down the apartment just to get that smell out …"

* * *

After a delicious breakfast at the diner, served by a very hot, very attentive proprietor, Lorelai began juggling. Not balls or beanbags, but ideas in her head. She was in conflict.

On the one hand, April was Luke's daughter. That would not change. Lorelai was actually happy because underneath the anxiety, Luke was clearly excited to get to know her. Lorelai cherished the memories of Rory and Lane growing up together and couldn't wait until she and Luke got to experience the same with April.

On the other hand, Luke was acting like a jerk. For weeks he knew this was happening and he didn't mention a word. How many times did they go to sleep next to each other and he hadn't said a word? How many dinners had they eaten together? How many days went by when she didn't tell him she called Christopher and made a lunch date? Wait, Luke's the jerk, not me, she corrected herself. He had every opportunity to say, "By the way, I might have a kid." Less than ten words. Even monosyllable man should have been able to do that.

On the other hand (she mentally lifted one of Rory's hands to keep counting), he loved her, truly loved her. Ever since the reconciliation, she had no doubts on that score. Except with April. April was first priority at the moment.

On the other hand, they were getting married. So many things were already arranged for June 3. If he stayed this crazy, how would he ever be ready for the wedding?

On the other hand (she had moved to the higher state of being of Kali, the multi-armed Hindu goddess of empowerment), the wedding was almost ready. Even though she had planned to, she had forgotten to include Luke. Sookie had been so crazy that first day, she completely lost track of the fact that it was his wedding too.

On the other hand, Rory kept reminding Lorelai of Luke's needs in their home. Why did she keep doing that? He lived there, had his stuff there, he was happy. OK, he had his clothes there, but there wasn't any room for his furniture, and honestly, where would they put his sports trophies and his talking Billy Bass? They needed their monkey lamp, they didn't need a talking fish. He was happy with that, right?

On the other hand, after the historically combative Friday Night Dinner, Emily had reached out to Lorelai, wanting to help with the wedding. Help, not control. It had taken several days of processing this with Rory before Lorelai began to believe it. Only one doubt remained. The crazy painted moonscape was proof that Emily had become a pod person.

On the last hand, she was dizzy from turning and considering all of these sides. How the heck Kali could afford to keep a decent manicure on all those hands was perplexing. She was the goddess of empowerment, though, so somehow she made it all happen.

Lorelai could do empowerment. She'd done it for twenty years. A fiancé, a wedding, a stepkid, a kid, a mother, she could handle that, like Ginger Rogers, going backwards and in high heels.

She would show them all how Lorelai Gilmore does empowerment. She would just keep dancing.

* * *

"Just wait, you'll see. When April is in the diner, Luke barely talks to me." Lorelai held Rory back by her elbow before they entered the diner, since she could see April sitting at the counter as usual, working on her homework.

"Mom, I'm sure it's not that bad," said Rory.

Once inside the diner, Lorelai pulled Rory to the table farthest from the counter.

"Aren't we even going to say hello?"

"No." Lorelai's scrunched up face was one Rory had seen many times, most often when Lorelai was trying to keep something painful from Rory.

Rory was looking sympathetically at her mother when she saw first surprise, then her fake innkeeper-meets-bad-customer smile appeared.

"Rory, nice to see you!" said Luke as he pulled her up for a quick hug. "What can I get you?"

"Burger and fries for me," she smiled as she took her seat again.

He glanced at his fiancée with raised eyebrows. "Just pie and coffee for me. We're still having dinner later, right?"

Her weird smile unnerved him, making his reply even more awkward than normal. "Yeah, sure, after I finish up here," he said haltingly, jerking his head toward April. "Uh, about 7:30, I guess. I should be able to come home then."

"There you have it," she said as Lane brought their food and collected their money. "That's more contact than I have ever had with him when April's here."

"Oh, Mom. This is not good. Does Luke have any idea how this makes you feel?"

Lorelai nodded like a bobble head doll. Rory didn't buy it. "We've talked about it, but I've decided to let him have it this way. He at least tells me what goes on now; he's not hiding things anymore. I make sure I'm never alone in the diner now; I always sit with someone." She shrugged sadly. "It helps."

She shook her head to clear it. "Tell me the latest about Logan. Is he back in your good graces again?"

"Heed my tale of a heroic knight, racing in to save the day when the reclusive editor-in-chief goes postal…"

* * *

"Lorelai, honey, come sit with us," called Miss Patty, seated at a table with Gypsy and Andrew.

Not having any appointment and not remembering if April were coming in that day, she joined them. Luke, coming out from the storeroom, scratched his head, wondering why she hadn't come to the counter.

Bringing her coffee to her at the table, he asked, "Got a minute?" as he nodded at the counter.

"Sorry friends, looks like I have an audience with the Duke of the Diner," she joked unkindly.

She approached the counter, hovering near the cash register.

"You don't wanna sit down?" he asked, truly confused.

"I'm sitting over there," she replied honestly, her face perfectly composed. Emily would have been proud.

"But …" he blinked several times. "Over here, we normally banter and you make kissy faces at me until I give you too much coffee."

She spent a moment comparing the bronze color of her shoes with the brass of the cash register. Taking a deep breath, she chose for empowerment.

Her words rushed out. "I didn't remember if April was coming in today, so I decided to sit over there just in case."

"She's not coming in. Have a seat. Let's do our normal bit, OK?" He bowed his head to look in her eyes, hoping that she'd relent.

She sighed. Empowerment was hard.

"Luke," she laid her hand over his. "We haven't done our 'normal' bit since before April came into our lives."

He flipped his hand over and grasped hers tightly. "Lorelai."

She waved her free hand ineffectually, then dove in. "Luke, the other day half of my family was here at the counter and the other half had to sit over there," pointing to the table she had shared with Rory. "It hurt."

"It doesn't have to be that way, Lorelai. I don't want it that way."

She found her chutzpah. "Yes, you do, Luke! You wanted it this way! I speak only when I'm spoken to! I'm giving you the private time with April that you wanted, that you insisted on!"

"Can't we do it some other way?"

"The only thing I can think of, Luke is for me to stay completely out of the diner when April's here. Is that what you want? You want to ban me from the diner while you build a relationship with your daughter?"

"No, of course not!" he insisted. "I know we're a family," he added weakly.

"Well, I don't know how to do it any other way than what I'm already doing." Wetness making her eyes even shinier than usual, she added, "So I'm going to go back to my coffee over there, with the other townies. I hope we find a better solution."

 _The other townies._ Those words struck him hard. Lorelai had never been just another townie, but that's all she felt she was now.

Seeing the pain in his eyes, Lorelai reached her hand up to Luke's scruffy cheek. Leaning in to kiss his other cheek, she whispered, "I love you, and we will find a way through this."

She returned to her table, joking, "Sorry, no free pie today, folks. All I got were some sweet nothings whispered in my ear."

Lorelai drank deeply from her coffee, trying to finish it as soon as possible.

Gypsy sneered. "That's a guy who's completely without a clue."

"I should send him a book," suggested Andrew, jumping slightly at the sound of metal bowls landing on the floor in the kitchen where Luke had taken refuge.

"We're on your side, honey," added Miss Patty.

Lorelai shook her head. "No, Luke and I are on the same side. We are still figuring out how to do this thing. I'll see you all later, gotta get back to work." She smiled as she hurried out the door.

Empowerment was a bitch.


	3. Unstable

CS 3 Unstable

* * *

"Dammit!" swore Luke as he looked at the latest spill on his flannel. Kirk was in top form this morning.

First strawberry jam on Luke's shirt sleeve as Kirk found it critically and urgently important to ask Luke about the weather. Who knew that jam hands could last a lifetime? Why the hell didn't he just look out the window to see the weather?

Now he'd squirted ketchup across the front of the clean shirt Luke had put on. Luke ran upstairs and chose a new flannel, taking the time to make sure he didn't smell too much like burgers and fried food. He even carefully combed his hair back in place, wondering how many of his few precious remaining healthy follicles Kirk had cost him in stress this morning.

Today was important.

After her emotional appearance in the diner a few days ago, they'd talked and straightened everything out. Sorta. He had a gut feeling that Lorelai wasn't quite on board with his April thing, but he couldn't figure out what to do next.

It didn't matter today. Today was the reason he'd lost sleep for two nights in a row. Three and a half hours sleep would have been wonderful during these past nights, but he stayed awake, trying to figure out how to handle today.

Today Emily was coming to the diner.

She and Lorelai had been working on the wedding and they now wanted to talk to Luke about the plans. Luke scratched his head over that again, because he'd thought that Sookie and Lorelai had handled it already the day they excluded him from wedding plans. Yet, here it was, wedding planning with Emily. This had all the makings of a Gilmore-sized disaster.

Recalling the last time she'd had lunch here, Luke racked his brain all night, trying to figure out how to give her a lunch that she wouldn't sniff at. Finally he was ready. Except that he could never be truly ready for Emily Gilmore.

"Hello, Luke," said Emily as he came out from the kitchen. She stood just inside the door, all alone.

"Hi Emily. No Lorelai yet?" He escorted her to the larger table by the window.

"She's parking the car. How have you been?"

"Fine, thanks, how about you?"

"Doing very well, thanks. I've kept busy working with Lorelai on the wedding plans. I hope you still have time to help us make some decisions."

"Of course," he replied, wondering if she could smell fear. Of course she could, he chided himself. It's Emily Gilmore we're talking about. "Lane's here to manage the floor while we talk."

"Hey, sugar," said Lorelai as she came through the door.

Relieved, Luke crossed to her quickly and, spectators be damned, he gave her a kiss worthy of gossip, but not so far out there that Emily wouldn't approve.

Lorelai could smell fear too, and she saw the Emily angst seen so frequently on anyone who thought they might accidentally cross her. "Breathe," she whispered in his ear. "It'll be all right."

"You're ready for lunch?" he asked, putting on as pleasant a face as someone who'd slept 5 hours in two days could put on.

"Emily, I've got a favor to ask," he started his speech.

"What's that, Luke?" she smiled politely, like she always did when she was about to be unpleasantly surprised.

"I've been working on a new raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing, and while Lorelai is normally the approver of all new menu items, we both know how she is with salads. I was wondering if I could bring you an arugula salad with the dressing? You know, get your feedback."

Lorelai began flailing her arms madly behind Emily's back, trying to get Luke to change his mind.

"It's fine, Lorelai, and I can see you making a scene behind my back. Please stop," said Emily. "Luke, I'll be happy to try it. Arugula is a favorite of mine."

"I'll get right on it then. Lorelai, your usual?"

She nodded and Luke disappeared into the kitchen to prepare the salad himself. He coated two chicken breasts with parmesan and sautéed them as fresh bread sticks browned in the oven. Caesar fixed Lorelai's burger and fries and Luke plated both meals for the women before bringing it out with Lane's help.

"Here you go, ladies. A parmesan-crusted chicken salad with raspberry vinaigrette on the side for you, Emily. Lorelai, your heart attack on a plate."

Lorelai eyed her mother's salad. "That breadstick looks good, and isn't that the chicken you've been making for me recently?"

He smiled. "Yep. And before you put your fingers on Emily's plate, here's a sample of salad for you, and extra breadsticks for the table."

Lorelai clapped her hands. As they enjoyed their meal, Lorelai listed all of the foods that Luke had cooked for her lately, from gumbo to lamb chops with cherries.

"You don't need to sell me, Lorelai. I know Luke's a fine cook. I'm glad he's trying new recipes for the diner."

"You know, Mom, I think he's trying to impress you more than trying to update the menu. Arugula in Stars Hollow? I don't think there'll be many takers." Lorelai ran her fingers through the dressing left on her now-empty plate.

After Lane had cleared the table, Luke brought over coffee for the ladies and iced tea for himself.

"Ready to start?" he asked. "I thought that Lorelai and Sookie had done all the planning already."

Lorelai smirked. "That was just the beginning. We have the location, the dress, catering, and things like that, but it's time for real decisions on the details."

Emily added, "That's only the wedding anyway. First comes the engagement announcement, with photos. Lorelai has already decided not to have an engagement party since you got engaged so long ago. You're OK with that?"

He nodded, getting the feeling that he would be doing a lot of nodding over the next few minutes.

Emily took charge, with Lorelai smiling and nodding as well. "That means the first thing will be to take photos for the engagement announcement. Now I know that everyone in Stars Hollow knows already, but Hartford needs a newspaper announcement, which requires a photo. I've got the photographer, but which location?"

"Luke, I was thinking outdoor photographs would be best. Kind of fun and casual." Lorelai captured Luke's hand under the table, squeezing it to help him to relax.

"Outdoor's great," he agreed. "But no silly poses, OK? People have brought pictures in here and they were standing on boxes and doing headstands and weird stuff like that."

Lorelai pouted a little, but acquiesced. Emily continued, "We'll need one formal indoor portrait of the two of you for the newspaper. I was thinking my house. There are several locations to shoot."

She looked him up and down. "Shaved or not shaved?" she asked.

Lorelai immediately replied "NOT shaved" while Luke said "Shaved." After a small amount of bickering, they agreed to have Luke be shaved for the formal portrait and "neatly scruffy" (Emily's words) for the casual pictures.

"Lorelai, you each need three outfits for the formal shoot and more for the casual. Plan on a whole afternoon for the casual shoot, Luke, you'll probably need to take the day off."

"Sounds like there's shopping to do," he said sourly.

"Don't worry, hon, I'll take care of it. Rory and I will bring you a selection of outfits and any you don't want we'll take right back to the store."

"For the casual shoot, we'll need one blue jeans set, plus two upscale casual," commanded Emily. She looked at Luke's confused face. "Lorelai will help you there, Luke. Who's in the wedding party?"

"Rory's maid of honor, of course and Sookie is the matron of honor. Did you get in touch with Jess yet?" asked Lorelai.

"Actually, I did. He called a few weeks ago and he agreed to be best man. Do I need more than that?"

"It wouldn't hurt to have one man for each woman on Lorelai's side."

Luke nodded. "I'll ask Buddy. He'll do it, unless he has to wear a tuxedo."

"No tuxedos, Luke, I didn't think I'd ever get you into a tux. I've been looking at a nice Hugo Boss suit that will suit you perfectly, so Jess and Buddy would only have to wear dark suits."

Lorelai had carefully navigated Gilmore waters to ensure that Emily was truly helping and not pushing for her own dream of Lorelai's wedding. Lorelai had shared enough of the April situation that Emily had secretly put her full support behind Lorelai solving this problem.

"Thank you for that," he said, truly grateful that she was looking out for him.

"How old is your daughter, Luke?" asked Emily, as she updated the list of attendants. "Will she be in the wedding?"

Lorelai's hand slipped from Luke's and she wrapped both arms around her knees. He could feel her shrink inside herself as she waited for Luke's response. Suddenly his hand was cold; at the same time his palms started sweating.

"Wow, um, I didn't think about it." He scratched his capless head and looked at Lorelai.

Emily let them stew over the question for a few moments. Lorelai had told her enough about Luke and his behavior since April appeared to realize this could not be an easy topic.

The couple sat there silent, not even looking at each other. Lorelai was determined that Luke should start this discussion, and Luke was finding it impossible to figure out what to say that would make Lorelai happy.

"Oh, for goodness' sake," cried Emily. "You two have got to figure this out. How tall is she?"

"She's, uh, twelve years old, and I guess about this tall," answered Luke finally, holding his hand at about the right distance off the floor.

"That settles it, then," declared Emily. "She's too tall and a little old for a flower girl. When you decide if you want her in the group, let me know. I can make a job for her. Maybe guest book coordinator or wedding favors distribution. There are many things she can do."

"I'll also need contact information for Sookie, Jess, and Buddy, so I can book the photo shoot. Are you having anyone represent your parents, Luke?"

"Oh! How about Buddy and Maisy? I love them. Then they'd both be in the wedding party."

Luke nodded, a happy smile finally appearing on his face. "They'd love it, I'm sure." He finally relaxed enough to lay his arm over the back of Lorelai's chair and rubbed her shoulder affectionately while Lorelai leaned back, moving her hand to his thigh.

Emily relaxed a little inside, happy to see her daughter responding to Luke's action. She had never seen Lorelai so worried about what should have been a joyous event.

"Good. There's one last event to schedule. Luke, Lorelai has told me that the wedding itself will be private and no business associates are invited, which is OK, but we do need to have some sort of event in Hartford after the wedding. There are too many social network connections that have to be maintained. Richard and I would like to host this event for our social group, as a celebration of your marriage. You two wouldn't have to do anything but show up. Maybe in August?"

"Sounds OK to me. Lorelai?"

"You promise to not go overboard, right Mother? No carriages, Ferris wheels, live animals?"

"How about a brunch or a cocktail party? No fancy wedding decorations, everything very low-key."

Lorelai smiled her first happy smile of the day at her fiancé. "Then I'm in. We're in," she added as Luke smiled back at her. "A brunch sounds nice," he said.

That decided, they sent Emily on her way, thanking her for her help.

Luke walked Lorelai over to her car. He leaned up against it and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her waist. Lorelai sighed into his shoulder, glad to have a relaxed Luke in her arms.

"Wow, I didn't expect that to be so easy. Your mother is really good at organizing. I thought we'd be spending our time arguing about mints or almonds on the table. Or releasing birds from a cage. There's no sense to putting birds in cages, just so a married couple can let them go after the wedding. Seems cruel. And insane."

"So ixnay on the endangered turtle release?" she giggled. She leaned back and looked at his beloved exasperated expression. "You're OK with these plans?"

"I'm great with them. You did so much work, and thought about stuff I'd like, you know, like the suit. You even kept Emily from dressing us up in frou-frou costumes with snow fairies. How could I not like it?"

She looked at him uncertainly. "But what about April? We don't know what to do about her yet."

"Hey." He put his hands on either side of her face. "We've got a lot to figure out with April, but in this case, and don't get angry for saying this, I think your mother's right."

Lorelai slumped in a pretend faint before opening one eye and giggling at him. "You agree with my mother! I'm shocked! Shocked and dismayed!"

He smiled dryly. "Seriously, she's twelve. If she comes, we'll find her a job and buy her a pretty dress. Actually YOU can buy her a pretty dress. I'm not going to the mall. I think Emily got that right."

"So, are we good?" she asked.

"We're good. Now go to work. Save the Connecticut tourism industry. I'll go give Buddy and Maisy a call, see if we can go there for dinner tonight. We can find out if Buddy's still got a suit that fits."

* * *

"No, Mom, I'm not going to go with you to the diner. April's coming in today and I can't stand … I just can't be there right now." Lorelai pinched the bridge of her nose, hoping to stop the tears and therefore the post-tears headache.

"But I thought everything was good. You talked. You said it was all worked out." Emily's voice echoed both her confusion and her anger.

"I know. I thought we did. Then Luke comes home after dropping April off at Anna's, and Anna had said something, and the next thing I know Luke is back on his "I vant to be alone with my daughter" Garbo shtick."

"I have to talk to him anyway, so I'll go by for a few minutes. I've got to give him the details on the photo shoot, make sure he's ready."

"I can do that, Mom."

"Not this time, Lorelai. It was too hard to work between Rory's and Jess' schedules, and if Luke comes up with some excuse that begins with 'Anna says,' I'm going to deal with it immediately."

"Go get 'em, girl." She wiped her eyes, beginning to feel a little better.

"Lorelai, please. I never 'go get' anything."

"Mom? Thanks for helping with the wedding." Neither woman needed to hear that the thanks were for much greater support than some wedding planning.

"You're welcome, Lorelai. Anytime."

A few minutes later, Emily entered the diner, walking to the counter where Luke stood.

"Hello, Luke."

Luke looked up, startled to see Emily Gilmore standing in front of him. His eyes darted around, looking to see if he'd missed Lorelai or anyone else coming into the diner.

"She's not here." Emily decided to let him stew, so she waited a beat before continuing. "Here are the details for the photo shoot. Try to make sure your hoodlum of a nephew arrives on time."

Luke turned up the corners of his mouth. "He'll always have a bit of hoodlum in him, I guess."

"Did you decide about the guest book person? I've had a lovely idea, but it will take some planning."

Emily followed Luke's glance to the girl sitting at the counter reading a book.

Turning to the girl, who now openly gave the pair her attention, she said, "You must be April. I'm your father's future mother-in-law."

Stupefied at Emily's poise, April blinked, but said nothing. Emily turned back to Luke.

"So did you decide if you want your daughter to participate in the wedding?"

Luke's mouth gaped as he started to say something, but realized he had no reply. He could see April nodding her head furiously in his peripheral vision.

"Well, um, I haven't talked to Lorelai about …" was all he got out before Emily interrupted him.

"Nonsense. We talked about it the last time we three met. Lorelai's in favor. You were undecided." She steadied her implacable gaze on him.

He finally turned to April. "Could you go upstairs until your mom comes?"

Still hoping that she would get to be in the wedding somehow, April moved fast to comply.

Even as his fight or flight impulse threatened to control his actions, Luke was secretly thrilled to see April's enthusiastic response. He knew that he would be unable to say no. The only sticking point was Anna.

"Look, Emily," he began before he was interrupted again.

"I don't need to look, Luke. I see perfectly fine. I just need an answer. Yes or no, will April participate in the wedding?"

"It's just that Anna …"

"Luke, do you not know anything about child custody? Both parents have rights. Legal rights that can't be denied. This Anna person has nothing to do with how you spend your time with your daughter. Her only job is to get your daughter to the agreed-upon place at the agreed-upon time."

He watched in amazement as her expression softened. He didn't know her almost-kind expression wasn't for him, it was for Lorelai.

"I can tell you each time that Anna has tried to limit you or Lorelai spending time with April. Do you know how I know, Luke? Lorelai brings that pain to Friday Night Dinners. It's in the hurt in her voice when she tells me that you've asked her once again to stay away from April or the diner. You are responsible for hurting my daughter, Luke, and you need to fix it."

Her mask shielded her emotions again. "If you don't fix it, you're going to lose her," she said curtly before going to the door. "Let me know when you decide."

* * *

Emily declared the engagement photo shoot with Luke and Lorelai to be a qualified success, hampered only by the fact that she wouldn't be able to make poster-sized photos for an engagement party that wouldn't happen, but she already had plans to have a portrait painted of the pair to hang in some to be determined location in the house. Luke appeared appropriately shorn and shaved, surprising his future mother-in-law with his masculine good looks.

Per her plan, the family photo shoot took place two days later, with Luke scruffy enough to satisfy even Lorelai. She made a few touch-ups to his scruff, not cutting him once in spite of his continual complaining about the absurdity of trimming three hairs and the innate human right to be free and choose his hair style for himself.

Final location was Emily's and Richard's lower garden, situated below the pool house. A small stream cut across the corner of the grounds and had been tastefully landscaped and sported a small arched bridge. The mature trees and quiet corners satisfied Luke's desire for a natural backdrop, yet gave Emily great pride that she could finally have her garden shown off the way she'd hoped decades ago when she dreamed of a traditional life for her daughter.

Luke and Lorelai had grown close during the engagement shoot. Three hours of posing body to body in various settings reminded both of them of the love they shared and the natural affection that developed from friendship to passion over the years.

The family shoot gave the couple time to enjoy themselves, since they were no longer the sole target of the photographer, so they spent their free time exploring quiet corners that were highly suitable for making out, alternated with observing and laughing at the antics of their friends and family. Sookie, Rory, Jess, Maisy and Buddy were all in fine form.

"We need our own luggage before our honeymoon," said Lorelai as they laid their overstuffed garment bags in the truck bed, which Luke carefully covered and secured with a tarp.

"We went shopping last week," complained Luke. "We bought new clothes for both of us. Couldn't we put it off for a while? Too much mall makes me ill."

"Aw come on, Luke," she cajoled as she began to channel Madonna. "We are living in a material world and I am a material squirrel!"

"Squirrel? More like nuts than the squirrel." Luke snorted at her silly pun.

He yanked on the rope before expertly knotting it. Opening the door for his fiancée, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.

"Hey, I had a good time today."

She snuggled in his arms. The past week had been the best since April came into their lives. She didn't know what had changed, but somehow Luke was more relaxed; she could feel that he was finally looking forward to their wedding.

"This is going to be a fun wedding, Luke. Do you think you can stand it?"

His face buried in her long curling hair, he chuckled, his warm breath coursing down the back of her neck, as soft and sexy as any kiss. "Hey, I'm going home with the grand prize. For that I can stand a few hours of almost anything."

"From the runt of the litter to grand prize at the county fair. You got yourself a winner, there, pardner." She giggled.

She leaned her head back to bask in his relaxed loving look. "Hey, now that Emily isn't staring us down, what did you really think of our engagement photo proofs?"

She pulled the proofs from her purse and spread them out on the bench seat of the truck as they stood in the open door.

"She picked a good one for the newspaper. Nobody's got their eyes closed or anything like that. But I really like the one where your hand is here on my shoulder like this, and my hands are on your waist. That's the one I want in our bedroom."

The bedroom was where he'd seen that look most often, in those moments shared only between the two of them. As long as she looked at him like that, he would forever cherish their love.

Her mouth opened in shock. "I can't wait until Mom finds out that you like the one she calls 'Lorelai's Bugs Bunny face!' You won't live that one down soon, mister!"

"I don't give a damn. I let you shave me and very unnecessarily tidy up my beard for these pictures, but from now on I'll shave when I want and how I want, and I'll have any damn picture I want, without comment from the peanut gallery. Anyway, I don't see the rabbit thing. I just see you."

She mocked the photo vociferously as they got into the truck. Spreading the pictures out again on the dashboard, she asked, "Which one for Rory and April?"

"Uh, I don't know. What do you think?"

They scanned the photos and simultaneously picked the same proof. It had sweetness, the warmth of their love was obvious, but it was neither as polished as Emily's newspaper photo, nor as intimate as the Bugs Bunny shot.

She slid over on the seat to keep contact with him on the drive home. They'd been touching each other for days, seemingly unable to keep their hands off each other. In the diner there was finger contact as they passed each other, and their hello and goodbye kisses reached Babette's standard for PDA, if not Miss Patty's.

In the waning daylight, Lorelai commented sadly, "Too bad that April couldn't come."

He swallowed hard, then nodded shortly in agreement. He stared hard at the road, his hands twisting around the steering wheel as if he were trying to strangle something.

"Anna said she had something she had to do. I really can't figure her out sometimes. It's almost as if she's bipolar. I mean, she talks ok, but when I say I want to invite April over, she starts laying out rules and gets these crazy eyes, and it always seems to end with her saying, 'I don't know if this is going to work out. I won't let April be hurt.' It's not like I'm asking for much, just to spend some time with her."

Lorelai rubbed his thigh, commiserating. "She'll come around eventually."

"Look at today!" he exclaimed, taking his right hand off the wheel to clasp hers tightly. "April would have loved to be a part of this, to meet everyone, but Anna said no!"

He sighed in frustration. "Did you have this problem with Christopher?"

"Christopher was just the opposite. I couldn't keep him near Rory without tying an anvil to him. I would have given anything if he'd shown half the interest you do. A tenth of the interest. God, you are so amazing and I hate that Anna doesn't see it."

"I gotta find a way to make her see. It can't go on like this. I hate to say it, but I might have to get a lawyer. God, I hate lawyers."

Lorelai strived to swallow every possible remark about marrying a lawyer that threatened to burst out of her. All that escaped her was a soft, sad "Meep," which Luke interpreted as sympathy.

"You might have to force the change you want. Anna's just being Anna. She's had April for twelve years now, and she's jealous of the time you want to have with her. This is a huge time for a mother and her daughter. She's becoming a teenager."

Luke lifted her hand to his mouth as he kept his eyes on the road. Lorelai could feel the tenseness hardening his muscles again the deeper they talked about this subject. She ached to relieve him of this burden, but he was so insistent on working through this as if Anna were actually willing to do it.

"One thing I did learn with Christopher, and I'm sure it's true with Anna too, is that he didn't intend to change. He is who he is, the absent father, coming around to check in once in a while. Anna's going to be controlling, fighting you every step of the way until you do something that leaves her no choice. It may be time to talk to a lawyer, hon."

Luke's cell phone rang at that moment, and he pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to Lorelai. "Is it April?" he asked.

"No, it's Jess." She looked at him and chuckled.

Luke drew one side of his mouth up as well. "Find out what he wants. He's probably caught on to Buddy's and Maisy's trick by now."

"Hi Jess, this is your future aunt. How can I help you?" she couldn't restrain a small giggle when she heard the strain in his voice.

"Get. Me. Out. Of. Here."

Adopting her best Blanche Dubois voice, she replied, "Now, why ever would I do that, honeybun? They dropped you off at the train station, didn't they?"

Luke snorted, then grinned big. Maisy had offered to drop Jess off at the train station, but later told Luke that he was way too skinny and way too pale, and it had been way too long since she and Buddy had seen him, so they were taking him home for the night to catch up.

"Uh-huh." Lorelai's grin broadened as Jess listed his complaints.

"Nope. He's driving. You know how slowly he drives. He'd never talk on the cell while driving."

"Oh, they're introducing you to their daughters? They are darling! You'll have the best time. Kimmie's daughter Toni is about your age. Maybe there'll be a spark."

"Uh-huh. No, still driving."

She covered the microphone with her hand and said, "Shall we go to Sniffy's for dinner tonight? Someone's going to need a little moral support."

Luke laughed and nodded. As Lorelai switched the phone to speaker, he could hear, "I don't need any friggin' moral support, I need a ride to the train station!"

"We're on our way, Jess," called Luke. "Gotta stop by home for a minute, but we'll be there in time for dinner. Let everyone know we're coming."

After Lorelai hung up, she put her chin on Luke's shoulder. "We're not going to hurry, are we?"

"Nope, I thought we'd arrive right after the last train from Hartford departs tonight," agreed Luke. "How did Maisy put it? That kid needs to get some meat on those skinny toothpicks he calls legs."

"That wasn't even the best moment today. You gotta love my mother. She always works hard to make an event memorable."

Luke roared with laughter as he mimicked Emily's voice. "What in the world is wrong with you, Jess? You'd think you'd never seen a swan before!"

"He screeched like a little girl before he jumped over the bridge and ran!" howled Lorelai. "Rory was rolling on the ground crying from her laughter."

"I know I'm going to hell for this, but I couldn't resist saying something at lunch, especially after Richard found out that Jess was a published author. Two books with one word titles, geez."

"And then Rory told the whole story of the swan attacking Jess." Tears started down Lorelai's face. "Then Dad asked Jess what the title of his next book was going to be, and you said, … you said, …." She gasped for breath.

"Beaked!" crowed Luke, stomping his left foot as they both lost it completely.

* * *

"Hey, Luke, you are not going to believe this!" hollered Lorelai as she came through the front door, having just left the inn.

"What?" he called from upstairs.

"Remember how weird it was that Logan dropped in on the photo shoot just as lunch was about to begin? Turns out, Emily called him when she saw Rory and Jess getting too chummy!"

"How did you hear that?" he asked, bounding down the steps two at a time and giving her a sweet kiss hello.

"Rory called. Logan confessed all." She rolled her eyes. "Now they're back together again and she's moved into his apartment."

"Rory and Logan, huh?" Luke was not impressed by this latest boyfriend.

"Yeah, guess we'll have to make the best of it." She smoothed her hands over the deep gray Henley he wore. "Hey, you're wearing the new shirt. I like it. What were you doing upstairs?"

"Just showered and changed after work. Was about ready to come downstairs when Anna called."

Lorelai turned to put her purse on the side table, hiding her squinchy face. Anna's calls usually left Luke confused, angry or distant. "What's up? Everything OK with April?"

"Yeah, yeah, Anna asked me if I could take her place as a chaperone on a short trip to Philadelphia next week. Some math thing or other." He blinked as he recalled the conversation. "You know, it was the first time she actually encouraged me to spend time with April. Maybe she's coming round."

Fat chance, thought Lorelai. Anna has never 'just come round' when it came to Luke and April. "Wow. That's short notice. Why can't she go?" She sneaked a glance to see how he was dealing with the request.

"Uh, something about Nantucket. I told her I'd check and let her know. Do we have anything going on next week?" He went into the kitchen, opened a couple of beers and brought them to the sofa, where Lorelai joined him, putting her feet in his lap for a foot rub.

"Nothing that I know of," said Lorelai. "No dates, nothing to do for the wedding."

"I guess I'll go, then."

She pulled her feet back from his lap, sat up on her knees and began massaging his shoulders and back as a thank you for the foot rub.

"Bet you wish we'd bought that luggage after all," she said. "The last time you took that green duffle out, your Bowie knife fell out through a hole in the bottom."

"Shopping first? Now there's a reason to not go," he moaned, mostly from the massage, but some from the notion of entering a mall again.

"Nantucket, you said? Sounds more like she's taking a vacation. Are you sure she's not just using you as a free babysitter?"

"I wouldn't put it past her." He looked at the clock. "I'm gonna call her right now and tell her yes."

The phone call started politely. Luke even joked about going to buy a suitcase. The civility disappeared when Anna confessed she was reneging on her chaperone deal to go on a mini-vacation with a 'friend.' Luke took the opportunity to bring up April staying for a weekend, but Anna rejected it instantly.

Luke bristled. "Then have fun in Philadelphia, Anna, because that's where you're going to be next week," he fairly shouted.

He paced back and forth, the vein on his forehead popping out as he spoke. "No, that's none of your business! I can take care of her overnight. She'll have all the privacy she needs!"

Anna's shouting became so loud that Luke lifted the phone away from his ear while he rolled his eyes at Lorelai. Whatever venting she had to do, it ended with her giving in to April spending a weekend with Luke.

He slumped back onto the sofa when the call was over. "I know I got what I wanted, but it doesn't feel like a victory. She fights me on everything." He slammed his head against the back of the sofa.

"Poor baby," soothed his fiancée as she rubbed his shoulders. After a few minutes, she said, "Do you remember the expanded plans Tom drafted for the Crap Shack? You know, the one with the rumpus room and an extra bedroom?"

"Yeah, we decided we didn't need the space right now."

"Well, that was before April. Why don't we look at them again? Maybe we can build a guest room for Rory and make her old room into April's?"

"Won't Rory mind?"

"Not if we put a bathroom out there too. She'll be over the moon when she comes to visit, although, with a live-in boyfriend, who knows how often that will be." She pouted a little at the thought of Rory choosing to move out, even if she remained close by.

Then she smiled. "Do you know how we should decorate the rumpus room? We should bring over your leather chairs and your Mission furniture. That would look great in there, and you could have your own little man-cave when we three girls get to be too much."

As Luke pondered the idea of Lorelai, Rory and April all living under one roof with him, even if only for visits, a slow smile spread across his face. "Sounds nice," he agreed. "What is a rumpus, anyway?"

* * *

There it was, she thought. A toes-curling, Jello-knees, heart thumpa-thumpa kiss from her fiancé, and as a PDA in the diner no less. Could anything be more perfect?

"Hello lover," said Lorelai happily. "Rory says hi, she will see us later at lunch today, and a rumpus is a noisy argument."

Slammed with the full force of her kiss and shining eyes, Luke's chest puffed up with pride like the guy who won the strong man prize at the county fair.

Trying to play it cool in spite of the townies who were smiling indulgently and gossiping behind the menus, he gruffly said, "Noisy argument? That sounds like a room we need."

He glared at the gossip's table when he heard tittering and giggling as they watched the happy couple. They ignored him.

"Good. I'll let Tom know to start working on a quote. I'm going to run upstairs to look at the furniture while you're fixing my breakfast, OK, sweets?"

"Sure. Cinnamon oatmeal with banana like usual?"

Her eyebrow peaked as she looked reprovingly at him. "Getting in practice for the rumpus, are we?"

"Maybe." An evil grin spread across his face and he winked extravagantly.

Coming back out of the kitchen where he'd deposited Lorelai's order for pancakes with all the heart attack meats, a delivery guy stood at the cash register.

"Danes?" he asked. "Delivery."

"Uh, no," Luke replied.

"What do you mean, No?" asked the courier.

"I'm not expecting any deliveries, so no."

"Your name's Luke Danes, right?"

Luke nodded with a scowl. "Still not accepting it. Who knows what crap is in this box." He recalled without amusement Emily's flood of gifts from a year ago, including the urns which cost him a bundle to get rid of. His scowl deepened as he recalled that Emily was also coming for lunch with Lorelai and Rory.

"Then you have a package. Deal with it," said the now surly courier, dumping the box on Lorelai's stool. "Have a friggin' nice day," he added sarcastically as he exited, mumbling, "Other couriers get to deliver flowers to pretty ladies. Not me, I get the grumpiest jerk in a three-county area."

Sighing, Luke carried the box to the end of the counter, unpacked it and dropped the duffle on the end of the counter. After putting the cardboard in the back near the rear exit, he noticed a tag hanging off the handle.

"A bag for your trip. Anna" was written on the tag.

"Huh," he thought. "Now I don't have to go shopping. Good."

He went back to the kitchen to check on Lorelai's food when the thought occurred to him that maybe Anna was feeling guilty about her obvious babysitting request and maybe he could play it into a better visitation agreement.

Lorelai danced down the stairs, scanning the grainy photos of the furniture she'd made with her cell phone, very satisfied with the ideas she had for the girls' rooms and the rumpus room.

The duffle bag stopped her in her tracks. "Ooh, pretty!"

Looking it over, she quickly found the tag, and even quicker lost all of her good mood.

"Uh, hey, Luke," she called weakly.

"Your food's not up yet," he said as he passed by with an armful of plates. He saw her holding the duffle. "Nice, huh? Anna sent that over. Now we don't have to go shopping," he commented before getting caught up in a discussion with a few old friends of his mother's.

"Yeah, nice," she replied to empty air. The polite smile she attempted was nothing more than a painful grimace. Her once-hungry tummy now boiled with acid.

Anger replaced the bile in a heartbeat. How could he do this? Didn't he understand how much it hurt – again – for him to choose a Nardini over his fiancée? She dropped the bag on the floor and ground the heel of her shoe into the side. Maybe a hole in the bag would let her pain out.

"Damn naugahyde," she cursed under her breath as she wished she'd worn stilettos today instead of the moderately-sensible low heels. She could barely scratch the side.

She grabbed her purse and exited the diner just as Taylor came in, commanding Luke's attention with another set of flyers and instructions for decorating the diner for the next festival.

Only later did Luke realize Lorelai hadn't stayed. He dumped her now-cold food in the waste bin, figuring, it was probably an emergency that had taken her to the Dragonfly. She'd be sure to tell him the whole story at lunch.

At lunchtime Rory dragged her hungover body into the diner. Alarmed by the black circles under her eyes, Luke personally escorted her to the table near the ice cream shop window. He eyed her critically.

"Hung over?" he asked.

"Oh yeah. Logan," was all she could mumble.

"I'll get you something. Dump him." He returned shortly with acetaminophen and a tomato juice. "Drink fast, and I'll get you some coffee."

A few minutes later, Rory was able to look around her. Seeing the bag, which Lorelai had already told her about, she went over and picked it up. She dropped it on the floor when Luke brought her a mug of coffee.

"Is this the bag from Anna?" she asked.

"How do you know … oh, Lorelai, of course." He couldn't exactly remember Lorelai seeing the bag, but that was the only logical explanation. "Nice bag, huh?"

"Are you freaking kidding me, Luke?" She held her head to steady the diner, which was curiously tilting on several axes at once.

"What?"

She sighed. "Don't you have any other luggage, Luke?"

"Just my green duffle bag, and it's got so many holes that stuff falls out."

"I thought you went on a cross-Canada trip with Nicole. What about that luggage?"

"Ah, yeah, it got kinda wet."

"Wet? Luggage should be able to handle a little water."

"Not when it's at the bottom of a lake."

She stared bleary-eyed. "Did you have an accident in Canada? Lose your luggage at the bottom of a glacier lake?"

"No. It's at the bottom of Wallace Lake, near my cabin."

"Surely it would have floated back up and you could have saved it, Luke."

"It was weighted down with rocks," he confessed. "I couldn't stand to look at it anymore."

"Luke, remember Mom's and my meeting with my dad?"

"Yeah?"

"He offered Mom all kinds of crazy gifts. Her heart's desire, he said. If she'd even mentioned needing luggage, she'd have a roomful of it by now. But she turned him down flat. She didn't even have to think about it. Do you know why?"

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground. "I have a feeling you're about to tell me."

"She already has her heart's desire."

"She does?"

Rory grasped Luke's flannel and pulled him closer.

"Yes. It's you, you idiot. You're starting to sound like Logan. Why do Gilmore girls do this to themselves?"

Luke started to say more, but she interrupted him as she suddenly released his shirt. "Go. I can't stand to talk to either you or Logan at the moment."

Emily joined Rory for lunch a few minutes later. Luke watched with trepidation, expecting to be summoned to their table for another lecture. He took the coward's way out by sending Lane to serve them, knowing that Rory would be happier to talk to her than to him at the moment.

Back in the kitchen, he pulled Lane off to the side. "They ordered already? Isn't Lorelai coming?"

Lane looked at him with a mixture of pity and indignation for her friends. "Why don't you call her and ask her, Luke?" she asked pointedly.

"Um, well, um, I got stuff to do. Maybe I'll do that later."

Lane shook her head as she went back on the floor. "Rory was right. Just like Logan."

Since the coward's way was working pretty well for him, Luke continued hiding in the kitchen until there was nothing left to do. Caesar finally threw him out and he reluctantly went to run the till. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Rory's table was empty.

He relaxed, glad to know that he didn't have to face Emily as well. Closing the till one last time, he turned to bus the tables.

"Hello, Luke," said his future mother-in-law.

"Ah, Emily, hello."

"I heard you could use some luggage. Why didn't you and Lorelai come to us? We have a storage room full of luggage. We can supply anything you need."

"It only came up recently," he stalled, trying to figure out what to do next.

"You mean like today, when you received this .." she sniffed, "this 'satchel.' Honestly, Luke, what were you thinking?"

"I only thought one thing – now I don't have to go shopping. I swear to god it's nothing more than that. I needed a bag, one appeared on my doorstep. One more thing checked off the list."

"Luke, you're an idiot. Lorelai offered to get you a suitcase, but you said no. Now the woman who has thrown your whole life into an uproar sends you one and you don't see anything wrong with that?"

"Like I said: need suitcase, kill suitcase, don't think anymore." He rubbed his head in frustration. "I thought Lorelai would be happy that we didn't have to go shopping."

Emily allowed the words to resonate in Luke's head for a moment.

He placed both hands on the counter. "God, that sounds stupid even to me. Lorelai loves shopping."

"Good, now you're learning. I trust you'll fix this." She dropped the bag distastefully on the floor. "By the way, I had some engagement photos framed for you. Perhaps you'll be so kind as to give one to your daughter?"

She took leave of him, leaving the poor stupid man staring out the window, exhausted from the strain.

"Kirk!" he barked abruptly.

Kirk looked up from the coffee cup he was staring into. Luke almost never called him over except to yell at him, but he hadn't done anything wrong today. Or at least this afternoon. Yet.

"You've still got a courier service, right?" Luke asked.

"Sure. For a nominal fee I can deliver almost anything almost anywhere."

He lifted the duffle bag. "How much to take this to Woodbridge?"

Kirk pulled out his calculator and began pressing buttons furiously, mumbling the whole time. "Bus, bicycle, overhead, transport insurance, fuel surcharge, pickup fee, off-hours delivery, packaging service charge, guaranteed on-time delivery, extra light weight, color upcharge, customs paperwork… "

"How much, Kirk!" he said in a tense voice.

"Twenty bucks," said Kirk.

"Seriously?" asked Luke. "How much to simply make sure neither I, nor Lorelai, nor Rory ever see this bag again?"

"Oh, that," replied Kirk easily. "Ten bucks."

"Done. Get it out of here." He handed Kirk the cash and turned towards the phone.

"Hey," he said, "it's me."

He winced as he heard the pain in Lorelai's voice and her weak attempt to sound happy and off-hand.

"You know, that duffle bag isn't really the right thing, so I got rid of it. Is there any chance we could go to the, uh, mall to find something better?"

He pulled the phone away from his ear, but kept it close enough to hear her enthusiastic response. A smile spread across his face.

"Yeah, yeah, we can go whenever you're ready. You'll come here when you're ready? Lane can manage for the rest of the day," he said with a look at his best employee. She looked at him reprovingly, but agreed anyway.

Taylor dashed out of the ice cream shop at the sound of screeching tires as the Jeep pulled in front of the diner.

"Lorelai Gilmore! You alone are responsible for removing those skid marks off the street!" he yelled as she disappeared into the diner.

Just inside the door she paused, leaning against the door frame as if she'd casually stopped by.

"Hey, what's up, Doc?" she asked a little breathlessly.

Luke involuntarily smiled as he remembered the engagement photo. "Nothing much." He shrugged. "Was thinking about going to the mall."

"Mall walking, perhaps? Got your track suit and Reeboks?"

He snorted. "Nah, had my eye on one of those soft pretzels. Wanna come?"

"Oh, I might be able to find some time." She neared the counter. "What did you do with the other bag?"

"Kirk has taken care of it already." He jerked his head at Kirk, who had returned to the diner a few minutes earlier.

Smiling, she went to Kirk, asking, "What are you going to do with the bag?"

Kirk was expressionless. "Sorry if my tortured emotional state disturbs you, Lorelai. I'm the kind of guy who wears his heart on his sleeve. Lulu has been very mad at me for a while. She hates that I sometimes use alter egos in my jobs, so I'm going to put my old uniforms and name tags in the bag and hide it somewhere safe."

Her mouth pursed to prevent laughing out loud, she asked, "Which alter egos, Kirk?"

He looked at her with the same expression as his tortured look. "I see now that I completely fooled you. I'm rather like Superman that way. Don't you remember when I installed your DSL? Or when I delivered swans to the Independence Inn?"

"Ah," she said, nodding in understanding. "I do remember those times. You completely fooled me, Kirk."

He nodded sagely. "Exactly what Lulu is concerned about. If they can't recognize me, how are women going to know I'm taken?"

"Smart, Kirk. So this is your swan song for your alter egos? From now on out, it's all Kirk, all the time?"

He nodded again.

"One last dance for us, then?" she proposed. "I know the perfect song. Material squirrels!" She laughed out loud as Luke realized what was coming. He stepped behind the curtain to gather his jacket and truck keys.

"We are living in a material world, and now we have material squirrels!" she sang, reprising her earlier Madonna adaptation. Pulling Kirk up, she danced him around the room, her joy infecting everyone in the diner.

Kirk turned out to be quite the dancer, spinning her and twisting her across the small space. A small group in the back started clapping in time, which spurred the couple on. Kirk executed a do-si-do, then flicked his fingers as she did a triple pirouette, unfortunately nearly crashing with a woman entering the diner.

Even though she hadn't been touched, the woman exploded with anger. "What do you think you're doing? This is a place of business!"

Lorelai stopped, panting from laughter and the exertion. "This is a place of business in Stars Hollow! Dancing is how we groove!" she said, trying to engage the woman in the fun.

"And you! You're a grown woman! Do you know how ridiculous you look? You should be ashamed of yourself!" The dark-haired woman straightened her clothes, which weren't even out of place, and looked haughtily about her.

Luke came back into the diner, paling when he saw Lorelai practically laughing in the woman's face.

"Anna!" he said.

* * *

"That woman should be arrested," complained Anna as she pushed past a dumbfounded Luke and stomped up the stairs.

Lorelai stared at Luke, mouthed the words, "I'm sorry," and left the diner immediately. She drove back to the Dragonfly and barricaded herself in her office, sending all phone calls to voicemail.

Rejecting the idea of a pity party, she put away the work she'd so happily abandoned an hour earlier, checked on staffing for the evening, and with a short "You're in charge" to a delighted Michel, she left for the evening.

Phone calls to Rory all went to voicemail, so she turned off her phone and drove directly to New Haven. When that also failed, she drove aimlessly, making an imaginary To-Do list and working it down. Anything to avoid facing the mess that surely awaited her at home.

"Luke! I haven't got much time." He didn't respond to that demand from Anna, so she pulled out what she already knew to be her secret weapon against him. "We have to talk about April. Now!"

That snapped him out of his stupor and he climbed the stairs two at a time, incensed. "What the hell are you doing, Anna! This is a place of business. You can't come in here and make a scene like that!"

"She's crazy! She almost knocked me over."

"Everyone in Stars Hollow is crazy. You know that! They're also good people."

"The crazy has certainly rubbed off on you in the past twelve years then, because I wouldn't let people like that near my daughter." She pulled a few papers out of her bag. "Here. The permission slips you need to allow you to take care of April on the trip."

As Luke read the form, his face turned first red, then purple. "Anna, what the hell is this? You marked out the father's signature space and put my name down as 'Other Appointed Person.' What am I? A nanny? I'm her father!"

"Oh Luke, please, you have no idea how to be a father and you haven't been around for more than a decade. No way are you ready for this." She glanced around the room angrily, suddenly seeing the photos Emily had given him. "This is her!" Anna screeched. "Are you telling me you're engaged to that woman downstairs?"

"Yes! I'm engaged to Lorelai, and we're getting married on June third. She's the best parent I ever met, and you'd be lucky if you ever got a tenth of her parenting skills!" He took the framed photo from her hand and set it off to the side. "You know what Anna? I don't have to be 'ready' to be a father, whatever that means. I'm her father and have been since you gave birth. Here's what I think of your papers!"

He shredded them in front of her and stuffed them back in her open bag. "I'll go to the school today and fill out my own papers. If you want to challenge my right to do that, then you can take it up with the principal. She's another chaperone on this trip, so you'll have plenty of time to discuss it, because if you challenge it today, you'll be the chaperone, not me."

With that he left the apartment, gave Lane some instructions and went to find Lorelai. Anna stood impotently in his apartment. She looked around, and an idea came to her. She pulled out her cell phone and took a couple of photographs with its camera.

After checking the Dragonfly, only to learn from Sookie that Lorelai had taken the rest of the day off, and driving by the house did he head to New Haven, stopping by Woodbridge to fill out the permission slip paperwork for the trip.

Much later that evening, he drove past the Crap Shack one more time, breathing a sigh of relief when her parked Jeep let him avoid the worst task of all – going to Emily and Richard to see if she were there.

Entering the house the first thing he noticed was the brand new khaki duffle bag lying on the floor in the entryway. He removed his shoes and walked through the darkened house, climbing the stairs to their bedroom.

Lorelai, already in her pajamas, lay silently on the bed. Luke quickly changed into his sweats and T-shirt without turning on a light. He pulled back the covers, gently moving Lorelai until he could get her under them. Going to his side of the bed, he slid in, spooned her and held her tightly.

"Thanks for the duffle bag," he said as he smoothed her curls away from her face. "It's perfect."

They lay quietly together until sleep eventually overtook them both.

* * *

Lorelai was throwing Luke's clothes into the khaki duffle, taking great care to choose the least matching combinations. Flipping through his underwear drawer, she carefully chose both the holiest and the too-tight pairs, adding them to the bag. Stalking into the bathroom, she ignored his woodland-scented toiletries and packed her strawberry shampoo instead.

When he cautiously suggested that the April sleepover might be better off at the diner, she snapped.

"So you want to throw me out of your life and have a sleepover at the diner?"

Luke said nothing.

"Luke, what the hell is going on here? One minute you're all understanding and sharing, the next you've become a doofus zombie, doing whatever Anna commands. We've spent days preparing Rory's room to share with April, and now you want to move it to the diner."

Luke didn't dare tell her that Anna had seen one of the engagement photos that Emily had given him. He knew that his reaction to her anger, though truthful, was going to come back and bite him on the ass. Maybe if he could get one sleepover under his belt, Anna would see that he was doing OK and would relent about Lorelai and their marriage.

"I'm trying to get Anna to give me my parental rights!"

"Rights are absolute! That's why they're called rights! When are you going to realize that?"

"When some of this insanity calms down! I can't see which way is up most of the time!"

"I'll tell you which way is up! Up is when you stop taking shit from Anna! Up is when April has a room with a door she can close when she comes to visit. Up is when the whole family can sit down to dinner together. Up is when we finally get married!"

"I need more time! I'm doing the best I can!"

"I don't even understand what you're doing, Luke! Why are you acting like this?"

"Because I'm trying to be you!"


	4. WWLGD

CS 4 WWLGD

* * *

Lorelai's head rattled from the screws that had come loose when Luke said the most insane thing ever. "You're what?"

"I'm trying to do what Lorelai Gilmore would do," he sighed. "And I'm failing. You're unhappy, I'm unhappy, and I'm no closer to being a real father than I was the day she pulled my hair out."

"But Lorelai Gilmore is crazy."

"Not when it comes to Rory. That's why I'm trying to follow your playbook. You are a great mother and I want to be a great dad, so I figured I'd do what you did. So far, I've failed."

"You aren't failing. She's talking, she wants to visit, she wants to know this part of her family."

"Yes I am. We don't have anything in common, I can't reach her. You could do it. Rory adores you. You guys are freakishly connected. April's indifferent to me."

"Luke, it's not true."

"Look, you were like a guard protecting the quarterback. When Rory was twelve, you practically carried her around on your shoulders. The first time Rory talked to me alone, you read me the riot act. It was weeks before you trusted me enough to let Rory and me have our own relationship. You raised this wonderful kid, and you did it all on your own."

"I didn't do it on my own. I had Mia, and Sookie, and eventually you. When we moved into the Crap Shack, Babette practically adopted us. Heck, even my parents helped. You can't do this alone either. You don't have to."

"God, yes, your parents. How you could stand to keep a relationship with them all these years is beyond me sometimes, especially when Anna's being particularly bitchy." He got angry all over again when he recalled Anna's words about Lorelai. "Then there's Christopher. You always kept the door open for him to have a relationship with Rory. Anna only wants a babysitter."

He looked at the clock. "Shit, I gotta go. You're still going to drive me?"

"Sure," she smiled weakly, the pain of the argument still coursing through her bloodstream. "I need to go shopping, buy you one of those little plastic bracelets with WWLGD on it."

"Huh?" he said as he zipped the duffle.

"What Would Lorelai Gilmore Do?" she smiled a little bigger.

* * *

As the bus rolled down the road, Luke mused over the fact that Anna had been nearly human when she dropped April off. He presumed that taking a stand on the permission slips had an effect on her. She'd even kept the possibility of a sleepover open, with an agreement to discuss it again after the trip to Philadelphia.

He sniffed the air through the tiny slit of a window in the yellow school bus. It smelled a little like hope.

Lorelai, knowing that she was definitely alone for the next few days, decided to finish up her wedding notebook, finally permanently attaching several photos and cutouts from magazines. She filled up the pages with beautiful ideas, steadfastly keeping space open to add April, hoping that Luke would finally see that he couldn't do it alone this time.

WWLGD. She laughed miserably at that thought. Luke didn't understand how often she'd failed. He couldn't see it; he didn't see the last half year when she'd gone crazy overboard about Rory's dropping out. Lorelai, his perfect parenting role model, had gone full-on Emily as she demanded Rory fulfill the dream Lorelai had for her, and withheld love when she didn't acquiesce.

The last argument with Luke had her worried. She could see him struggling, but he kept going back to accommodating Anna. She'd done enough accommodating of Christopher to know that was never going to end.

Like Christopher and Lorelai, Luke and Anna would never want the same things. She longed for the two of them with their daughters to finally be a family, but she wasn't sure Luke would do any better with Anna than she had done with Christopher.

She sniffed the air as the breeze blew through the open window. It smelled a little like despair.

* * *

Lorelai stood off to the side of the parking lot while the parents of the children waited for the bus to arrive. She'd jumped right in when she arrived, but the awkwardness of introducing herself as the heretofore unknown fiancée of the almost equally unknown father of one of the quieter students made her appreciate the positions of the trophy wives in the Chilton Boosters group. While she considered doing a soft shoe, the knowledge that Anna would be there any moment kept her pointe slippers on the shelf.

The giant yellow bus rolled into the parking lot on time, and the kids piled out first, giggling and laughing. April waved at her as she walked around to the back of the bus to wait for the luggage.

Luke collapsed into Lorelai's arms gratefully. "I hate school buses," he grumped, "but I'm glad to see you." He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her before greeting her with a kiss. Her arms went naturally around his neck as she returned the favor.

"Hi Lorelai!" said April happily. "Luke has missed you."

"Hi April, I missed him too," she said as they stood comfortably holding each other.

"Hey Luke," asked one of the other chaperones, "Can you help sort out the luggage?"

He trotted amiably to the bus, while April turned to Lorelai. "So Luke is pretty bad about describing the wedding preparations. Can you catch me up sometime?"

"Aw, honey, I have just the thing. While you were on your trip, I finished my wedding notebook. You know, where I put pictures and lists of all the decisions we made?"

"I do," agreed April. "Some of my friends are making those now, but I'm going to wait, because I know that my tastes will change by the time I'm ready to get married. Also, Luke said that he really liked having input, so I guess it will have to wait until the guy is there as well."

"Ah, you are very wise, grasshopper. I threw about three books away before I met Luke."

"April!" The unfriendly shout from her mother wiped the smiles off both April's and Lorelai's faces.

Anna, standing by her car, waved her daughter over. From the distance Lorelai could see that Anna gave April a perfunctory hug, giving Lorelai a death glare at the same time. She shooed her into the car and closed the door.

"Hey, where's April?" asked Luke as he came back to Lorelai with both his and April's bags. He opened the back of the Jeep and tossed his duffle in, just as Anna came over to them.

"Luke, we need to talk."

He rolled his eyes, sick of that phrase, especially coming from Anna.

"Lorelai, this is Anna Nardini," said Luke, finally introducing the two women. "Anna, Lorelai Gilmore, my fiancée and the most amazing mother I ever met."

Anna ignored Lorelai's cheery greeting and proffered hand, instead pulling Luke off to the side. Once again feeling lost and lonely in this parking lot, Lorelai got into the Jeep, aimlessly scrolling through her phone.

"What is she doing here?" hissed Anna, not caring that the open back of the Jeep allowed Lorelai to hear everything without even trying.

"She's here to pick me up. Look, Anna, you have got to get used to this."

"I don't have to get used to anything," she snarled. "She's unstable and I won't have her near my daughter."

Lorelai's head sank back against the headrest. She dreaded another cycle of 'do what Anna wants until Luke comes to his senses.'

"OK, then," said Luke sarcastically, "have it your way. I'll make sure she only associates with my daughter."

"You think you're so funny? The sleepover on Saturday is canceled. You can forget about her coming to the diner for a while as well!" She stalked off, leaving Luke rubbing his face in frustration.

Slamming the back of the Jeep closed, he came to the driver's side of the Jeep and patted Lorelai's arm. "Can I drive? It's been hell riding in that bus, not being in control."

"Sure, if you don't mind riding in a car with an unstable person," she replied, sliding down to the ground and hugging him before going to the passenger side of the Jeep.

"You heard that? I think Anna needs to look in the mirror if she wants to see someone who's unstable."

* * *

It took a couple of phone arguments with Anna before Luke got the sleepover established again. He wasn't proud of himself, because he'd all but agreed with Anna to have the sleepover at the apartment, and he'd suggested (several times) that Lorelai should maybe visit Rory on Saturday, thereby limiting the time the three of them were actually spending together. Anna, confident in her ability to manipulate Luke, never doubted that he would do what she told him.

Lorelai, on the other hand, saw his conflict and once again gave in to make his life easier. An ache in her heart that came when he gave in to Anna decided to start laying a permanent foundation.

"So you're meeting up with Rory this afternoon?" Luke asked carefully. Saturday morning found them both at home for breakfast before Lorelai spent a half day at the inn and Luke went to the diner.

"Yeah, in New Haven. We're going to do some shopping then meet Logan for dinner." She missed the times the four of them would go out. Logan wasn't her favorite of Rory's boyfriends, but he was engaging and could even draw Luke into interesting conversations. That had all stopped when April came on the scene.

"She hasn't dumped him yet?"

"No, Luke, I think she really loves him. His accident scared her. Him, too, I think."

"But he was being a jerk. He shouldn't treat her like he did."

Lorelai squinched up her face and bit her tongue as she fought the urge to replace Logan's name with Luke's.

"Everybody has their limits. Rory hasn't reached hers with Logan yet." Lorelai could feel the cracks in her own armor as she wondered where her personal limit was.

Luke cleaned the dishes off the table as they prepared for work. At the doorway, he stopped. "So you're with your daughter today, and I'm with mine." He chuckled uncomfortably before looking at her, his eyes pleading for a yes answer. "That's good, isn't it?"

"Yeah, good," she echoed as digging to the bottom of her purse became her most important goal in life.

* * *

At lunchtime, Lorelai had recovered her poise enough to be able to give Luke the wedding notebook. "I told April you'd show her all the details we planned."

"Uh, yeah, sure, I'll do that." He looked doubtfully at the book.

She sat awkwardly a moment more, then said, "So I'm gonna go back to work for a while."

Luke looked up from the page he was perusing. "Hey, this isn't your actual wedding dress, is it? I mean, it's not bad luck for me to look at it or anything?"

She smiled wanly. "No, it's not the same dress." They'd had enough bad luck so far with Anna, Lorelai wasn't about to take any wedding dress luck for granted.

"So, um, bye." She stood up, waiting to see if he'd remember to kiss her.

"Oh, hey, kiss!" he said, leaning over the counter. She pecked his lips and departed.

A couple of hours later Luke and April were settled on the sofa in the apartment.

"So you wanted to know more about the wedding? Here's Lorelai's book. Got any questions?"

April gave him a wry smile. "Let me take a look at it first."

Before she could take the book out of his hands, her cell phone rang. She answered her friend's call and after a moment, paused and looked at Luke.

"Hey, Luke, can you give us some privacy? We got some girl stuff going on."

Luke's eyes widened. Jess had never needed privacy.

"Uh, yeah, sure, there's uh…" He looked around. There was a closet and a bathroom with a door. He couldn't ask her to go to those places.

"Um, I guess I'll, uh, go clean the bathroom." Taking the book with him, he beat a hasty exit as April settled onto the couch.

He looked around the room. He'd cleaned the bathroom last night in preparation for April's visit, so there was no actual cleaning needed.

April's clear request for privacy blew a gigantic hole in Luke's fantasy of having her stay the night in his studio apartment.

The giggling and squealing he heard now in his living room transported him back ten years, to the first times a young Rory and Lorelai filled the diner with girlish laughter. Playing 1,2,3 He's Yours, or even affectionately teasing the grumpy diner owner would send them into peals of laughter.

He admitted to himself that he missed that. Rory was wonderful as an adult, but those early years as he got to know her and her mother transformed him. Slowly his budding love for Lorelai germinated thoughts, even hopes of more children in his life, maybe even his own children one day.

Remembering the length of time that Lorelai and Rory could sit at a table, talking about nothing and everything made him realize that he might as well make himself comfortable. April was probably going to be a while.

Looking around the room, he verified once more that there was no work to be done, so he settled down on the toilet and opened the book.

The first page held Lorelai's favorite engagement photo. Subsequent pages had snapshots of them, plus pictures cut out of magazines showing details Lorelai wanted to remember as they planned the wedding. His inputs were clear as she'd circled bits and pieces that he recalled discussing with her. His favorite flowers, oriental lilies; touches of white for her wedding gown, a list of songs including ones he'd suggested.

There were snapshots from the photo shoots. Someone had managed to catch Jess as he sprang over the bridge in his attempt to avoid the swans. Another had caught them in a nook under an arch kissing as if no one were watching.

There were gaps, places Lorelai had reserved for decisions not yet made. The biggest gaps had penciled-in notes indicating what would eventually be put there. Almost all the gaps had April's name on them.

Lorelai was waiting. Waiting for him to close the gap he'd created; a canyon he'd dug between April and the rest of his family. Stuffing the book under a stack of towels, he stood up and paced. One step up, turn around, one step back, and the entire bathroom had been navigated.

He looked in the mirror. Maybe it was time to shave. It was actually a couple of days early, but the squeals and giggles outside showed no tendency to get less, so he shaved.

Luke knew his idea was solid – he wanted to build as close a relationship with April as Lorelai had with Rory. He'd made progress, especially after the field trip. April was speaking more openly with him and he didn't feel quite as awkward as before.

He wrapped a hot damp towel over his face, enjoying the steam as it penetrated the skin and scruff. He lathered his wet scruff with the fine brush Lorelai had given him last Christmas. As he shaved, he recalled what Lorelai had given up to build her perfect relationship with her daughter. She'd worked hard, sacrificed and built a life for them here in Stars Hollow. And she succeeded.

She and Rory made a home for themselves, and were perfectly happy.

Until Chilton came along. Lorelai's sacrifices couldn't pull enough money together to give her daughter the education she needed to get into Harvard, so she muzzled her own pride and independence, creating a deeper relationship with her parents in exchange for financial help.

There were innumerable times he coaxed them out of a post-Friday Night Dinner funk. Emily had not held back on her criticisms, and Lorelai had defended herself in her turn. Tears were shed in the diner on those Friday nights, soothed by chili cheese fries, pie and coffee.

Luke remembered, too, those very few occasions when one or the other Gilmore girl came into the diner after a Friday Night Dinner without being in a bad mood. Lorelai sat over her third cup of coffee one evening when she confessed that maybe the dinners hadn't ruined her life after all. Even more, she could smile as she saw Rory building real, positive relationships with her grandparents.

He cleaned his razor as he pondered how life would have been different if Lorelai had had the money for Chilton. Rory wouldn't have been exposed to important influences that helped her get into Yale. She wouldn't know her grandparents for more than the people she visited on holidays. She wouldn't know her family. She wouldn't know Logan.

Even Lorelai had benefited lately. After the debacle at the vow renewal, she and her mother eventually spoke again, and Luke could see that after Rory returned from her semester off from Yale, that Lorelai and her mother were actually slowly bonding. Very slowly, like the glaciers April told him about, but bonding nevertheless.

In spite of all it had cost them emotionally, both girls had benefited from bridging the gap created by Lorelai's move to Stars Hollow. They had become a family again. They had even accepted him back into the fold, he could honestly say that Emily was holding true to her word to not interfere.

They were ready to move forward, or at least they had been until April came along. He shook several drops of aftershave into his palm, rubbed them together and applied it to his face. The astringency of the alcohol shocked his skin at the same time that the impact of his own actions shocked him.

He looked in the mirror and said, "Luke Danes, you're an idiot."

In trying to be like Lorelai as a parent, he'd split his other relationships in two. Rory was upset with him. Lorelai and he had argued like never before, and he simply accepted it all. In his wish to keep a relationship with April, he'd continually given into Anna's demands. Each time he gave in, he dug his canyon deeper.

It had taken Lorelai half a decade to forge a tolerable relationship with her whole family. He was not going to let that happen to his family.

He exited the bathroom and walked over to the sofa, startling April, who broke off her discussion mid-sentence.

"April," he said confidently, "I have to go out for a few minutes. You stay right here. If you need anything, either talk to Lane or call me on my cell, OK?"

She nodded, and as he closed the door behind him, he could hear her say, "My dad's actually leaving me alone for a few minutes. Finally!" Then the giggles resumed.

* * *

Luke bounded the steps and with one quick stride stood in the Dragonfly lobby. He ignored Michel's shocked yet still contemptuous look as he went to Lorelai's office.

He flung the door open, his masculinity and aftershave filling the room instantly. Three female heads gave him their immediate attention. Sookie, Lorelai and Christy the event planner had been meeting over coffee and cake.

Looking only at Lorelai, he said, "We need to talk."

As his pheromones hit peak impact, Lorelai could only say, "Meep," which Sookie interpreted as "Clear out, ladies, I think my desk is about to be cleared for action."

Sookie grabbed Christy's elbow and pulled her out as the younger woman asked, "What was that?"

Sookie replied, "That, my chick, is a man on a mission. Let's get out of earshot."

Embarrassed, Luke realized that he had no idea what he actually was going to say.

Lorelai crossed her arms protectively over her chest as she stood. The ache in her heart said that Luke was as likely to drop another A-bomb, A for Anna, as he was to grab her and ravish her here and now.

"Uh, hey," he said. Suddenly shy, he looked down at his shoes.

"Kiss or kill." Lorelai's shields were still up.

"What?"

"Hug or hurt. Kiss or kill. You've clearly got something on your mind, and it's either going to hurt or be amazing. Which is it?"

Remembering his mission, he opted for kiss, which he did without delay. His new-found resolve was poured into his embrace, curling toes and hair and fingernails. When they broke for oxygen, Lorelai staggered back, knocking items off the desk as she grabbed for support.

"Guh… good kiss. What's up?"

"I'm an idiot."

"That's what my mother said."

"I agree with her."

"That's the second time this month. Do I need to buy you Best Friends Forever lockets?"

"Skip it. We'll manage without."

"You sure? I could also get you a bromance kit for you and my dad. Matching ball caps, plaid golf shirts, maybe pinky rings?"

"How about if you do something else for me instead?"

"What's that?" she asked, starting to unbutton his flannel. He slapped her hands away.

"Later. I thought we would go meet up with our girls and take the whole family out for dinner."

"Yeah? All four of us? Same restaurant? Same table? One check?" She buttoned his shirt back up again, patting him on the chest as she felt the ache in her heart dissipate.

"Same water glass if you want, even though I think that's pretty disgusting."

"I'm OK with separate glasses. And plates. You know Logan will probably come along."

"Good, he'll have the chance to meet the whole family. He ought to do that at least once before I kill him because of the way he's treated Rory."

She nodded her agreement, then clenched her hands, knowing she needed to ask the next question. She prayed for the answer that wouldn't break her heart. "And Anna?"

"Not invited. We'll tell her about it tomorrow. If she's got any complaints, we'll start hammering out a custody agreement."

Lorelai put away her work and made one last round through the inn while Luke stepped into the kitchen for a cup of tea. It didn't take long before Sookie was apprised of all the relevant details. Between intense hugs expressing her joy at this turn of events, she quickly prepared two boxes of baked goodies, one for April and one for Rory, for Luke and Lorelai to take with them.

Back at the diner, they told April of the plan to visit Yale to meet Rory and take a short tour before dinner. Luke quickly changed into a nice sweater and pants.

"Yale! I need my camera!" she exclaimed, over the moon at the thought of getting to know Rory better.

They piled in the Jeep, Luke remembering at the last second to take the wedding notebook with them. On the way, Lorelai began working through the pages of the notebook, telling April the background stories behind their choices. The threesome quickly decided that guest book was the job for April, and Lorelai promised to get Emily's ideas to her as soon as possible.

"Come in!" cried April as she ran for the front door. She unlocked it and flung it open, bouncing until they came into the foyer. "I'll be right back! Mom! We're here!" she called as she ran up the stairs to her room.

Anna came from a back room, wiping her hands on a dishcloth. "What's wrong?" she asked as she noticed Luke.

"Hi," said Luke and Lorelai at the same time.

Anna froze when she noticed Lorelai. Before she could say anything, April dashed back down the stairs. "I'm ready! Let's go!" she said happily, flinging the door open again, enjoying the twang at the old door bounced against the coiled doorstop.

She and Lorelai stepped out onto the porch as Anna pulled Luke to a halt. "What's going on here?"

"None of your business, actually," he said, "but I'm taking my family out to dinner."

Lorelai moved quietly with April to the car before Anna could react.

"But we agreed…"

"No, you demanded, and those demands are over. Next week you and I will start to work out a definitive custody agreement."

"You can forget that!" she said indignantly. "I'll see that you never see her again!"

Luke scoffed. "That's one proposal, I suppose. My proposal is a little more equitable, fifty-fifty. You had her the first twelve years, I'll have her for the next twelve."

Anna paled.

Luke turned and raised his hand. "I'll drop April off tomorrow evening before dinner. Don't bother calling before then."

* * *

Before they'd driven five minutes, Luke's cell began ringing. He handed it over to Lorelai, saying, "Turn it off if it's only crank callers."

Lorelai answered, only to have her 'Hello' met with a stream of angry words. When Anna realized it wasn't Luke on the phone, her tempo and anger increased.

"Sorry, Mr. Danes is at a private family function and isn't available right now. Please call back tomorrow."

April was immersed in the wedding notebook, absorbing the images of her new-found relatives, and didn't pay attention to the phone calls, which sounded like business anyway.

Hanging up, Lorelai turned off the power on Luke's phone. She called the diner on her cell, reaching Lane.

"Lane, honey, I wanted to let you know that Luke's phone is off for the rest of the day. If you need to reach him, call me, OK?"

She nodded at Lane's response, saying, "Um-hm. We're going to visit Yale, then take Rory and Logan out to dinner. We'll be gone a while."

A moment or two later, she hung up. "Lane says hi and promises there won't be any emergencies, and that we should enjoy ourselves and give Rory a hug from her."

* * *

Rory, who hadn't been clued in on the most recent happenings, eyed Luke with animosity when they gathered in front of the statue of Handsome Dan.

Lorelai, sensing her daughter's need to get on the same page as Luke, took April on a tour of the places where they were most likely to find Yale squirrels for her photo album.

Looking more like her mother every day, she crossed her arms protectively across her chest and asked, "Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'm an idiot."

"We're in agreement on that point."

"Most Gilmore girls do agree," he acknowledged. "Even Emily."

Her frown cracked a little.

"What about you and Mom and April?"

"Me and your Mom and April and you are here to have a family dinner. Before you turn on the snark and ask, it's all four of us in the same restaurant, at the same table, but everyone gets their own water glass."

She snorted. "You're paying?" she asked.

"I have the feeling I'm going to be paying for this for a long time. Why not start now?" he sighed.

"Wedding?"

"On. April's doing the guest book. Date's still June third."

"Luggage?"

"Your mom bought me a nice duffle bag. Kirk adiosed the blue bag; I think he said something about using it for clothing for the Stars Hollow squirrels. Emily's offered to let us choose some bags from her storeroom."

"Nice. She's got some beautiful Louis Vuitton bags."

"My uncle's name was Louie."

"Tell her that when you go over. She'll want to know that." Her frown had been replaced by an evil grin and her eyes sparkled for him again.

"Uh-huh. I'll get right on that." He looked slyly at her, then winked. "What about you? Did you dump the loser yet?"

"Why don't you tell me what you really think, Luke?"

"I think he doesn't deserve you. He's a, a…"

"Butt-faced miscreant?"

"Hey, nice one. Gotta remember that." Luke put his hand on Rory's shoulder. "Seriously, though, what's up with this guy?"

She looked at Luke, who was intently waiting for her assessment.

"He's had his bad moments, but so have I."

"And after all those moments?"

She shrugged elegantly. "I love him."

Luke exhaled fast. "Whoa. That's big." He sat down on a nearby bench, resting his arms on his knees as he pondered the news.

"Can I have tonight?" he asked abruptly.

"What do you mean, Luke?"

"If you love him, I gotta get along with him. I know that much. But I was kinda hoping that tonight I could strong-arm him a little. You know, put the fear of god into him that he better treat you right."

"Are you going to hurt him? You know he just got out of the hospital."

"Nah, I'll limit it to mental torture tonight. No touching, no tripping, no letting him walk into walls."

"No headlocks?"

"Agreed. We good now?" He nudged her shoulder.

Nudging back, she said, "We're good now. Thanks, Luke, I'm glad I've got you on my side."

"You've always got me on your side, Rory. All three of you. You're my family. Gotta take care of family."

After meeting up with April and Lorelai and viewing some oddball photos of Yale squirrels, Logan joined them. He obliged them by taking the first-ever picture of the small family in front of the Yale gate.

The girls decided to go to the university store to load April up on Yale paraphernalia, which left Logan and Luke to settle themselves on a bench near Handsome Dan's statue.

"Do you know if that statue's made of anvils?" asked Luke.

Logan lifted his shoulders slightly, wincing at the residual pain. "Rory's the Yale historian, but since some anvils were made of bronze, I suppose there could be a little anvil in Handsome Dan."

"Anvils are pretty heavy. One of those landing on a guy's head could do some damage."

"Yep," agreed Logan.

"More damage than jumping badly off a cliff."

Logan shifted uncomfortably. "Um, yeah."

"Would probably be a good punishment, like if a guy treated his girl badly. A little accident with an anvil falling off a shelf could teach a guy a lesson, don't you think?"

Logan began clinging to the edge of the bench farthest away from Luke, who sat there calm and satisfied.

With a distracted voice, Logan commented, "Too bad all the anvils have been melted down for statues and stuff."

"Not all of 'em. Did I ever tell you my grandfather was a blacksmith?" Luke began nodding his head slowly. "I bet I could dig up an anvil or two."

"Oh, I don't doubt that. Luke, you do know that I love Rory, right? And she loves me back?"

"So butt-faced miscreant is a term of affection?"

"In some circles, yes."

"Luke."

"Lorelai," he greeted her with a smug look on his face.

"How about if we head over to the car? It looks like Rory's got some work to do to get Logan's blood circulating again. He's as white as a sheet." She peered at him more closely. "I'm not sure he's breathing."

"Really? I hadn't noticed. Sorry, man, hope you're feeling better soon." He stood up and squeezed Logan's good shoulder tightly enough to make a lasting mental impression.

Taking Lorelai's arm, and followed closely by April, Luke casually mentioned, "Did you know that dog statue might be made out of melted anvils?"

"So that's where the anvils went!" she said in amazement, squeezing even closer to him. "See you guys at the restaurant!" she called to Rory, who was now holding a bag over the hyperventilating Logan's mouth.

 _Fin_

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **I riffed off two minor S6 themes. One was that Rory started being more assertive when she burst out of Emily's influence at the balalaika event. The second was that Emily began to step up and support Lorelai around the house hunting time. I fluffed up those themes a little. OK, a lot. So sue me. I was born with a fluffy stick up … oh well, never mind.**

 **The Meep is an homage to DSLeo.**

 **The notebook isn't a riff on Deepfriedcake's extraordinary photo album story. It's just a wedding wish book. Go read** _ **Alone's the Last Place**_ **and you'll see what I mean. The only thing they have in common is that they both use paper.**


	5. Epilogue

Child Support Epilogue

"Oh my god, I can't believe it." Lorelai muffled her laughter in Luke's pillow.

"Wha… ?" mumbled Luke, as her breath puffed in his face, the smell of her cinnamon toothpaste waking him fully.

"No DNA test needed. I could have told you she was your daughter in one minute."

Luke sat up on his elbows. "What's going on? Is April OK?"

"You two. You and April are so alike!"

He smiled. "She has brown eyes, I have blue. She's a science nerd, I'm a jock. Yep, two peas in a pod."

She tweaked his nose, then kissed it. "No silly. You snore exactly alike. Listen!"

She tiptoed over to their bedroom door and cracked it open. The moonlight reached her face as she turned to him, hissing, "Come here!"

With a fake sigh, he unfolded his legs and raised his torso to a sitting position. Joining her at the door, he could now hear April's small snore, not unlike Jess'.

"When you're both asleep, it's like I'm listening in stereo!" she giggled.

"Hush!" he cautioned, "she might be a light sleeper."

"No way, my friend. A light sleeper would wake herself up with snoring that loud. And you would have woken her up a few minutes ago, 'cause you were sawing big logs. Redwoods. Banyan trees."

"Come here," he said as he wrapped his arm around her naked waist. They stood clasped together in the moonlight, listening to his daughter sleep, swaying with each other, skin on skin.

This was what he had been missing. Someone to share the experience with; someone who would be as excited as he was to get to know her.

She ran her hands from his waist down his hips to his thighs, relishing the waves of his body: his solid waist, rising, then falling into the valleys at the sides of his butt, then rock-hard thighs which held both of them upright.

That feeling of skin on skin, with no hidden secrets, no important words unsaid, was the connection they'd lost since Rory dropped out of school. They'd made love, but Luke could tell Lorelai's heart was somewhere else. He'd wished desperately that he could bring her back to reality, but nothing he did could reach that place in her heart that she had built an Emily-style moat around.

He held her more closely as he realized that she must have felt the same when he hid April from her. His moat had been the diner, his fiancée on one side, his kid on the other, his eyes constantly questioning why she didn't jump the moat he'd built. But she'd tried several times, only to be pushed back by him. Instead of grabbing her hands and pulling her over the moat and swaying with her like he held her now, he pushed her away or simply let her fall into the icy water on her own.

He built the bridge yesterday when he abandoned his idiocy and took his whole family out for dinner. Lorelai had run across the bridge and jumped into his arms. So happy, downright joyous, so much more than he deserved. Now they stood together, in their house, listening to his and her soon-to-be stepdaughter sleep. He swayed with her, feeling her, relaxing in the warmth.

"Luke, I'm cold," she said.

He placed his palm on top of her head, blocking the area of greatest heat loss. A practice he'd learned from his camping excursions. He guided her to his side of the bed, and she slid over to the middle. He joined her, pulling the covers up and stretching his torso out against hers, letting his body heat warm her. She sagged quickly, sleep overcoming her.

"Thanks for waking me," he whispered.

"Mmmph," was all she answered in reply. Gone.

He held her until her body temperature has recovered and she rolled away to her normal sleeping position. As he smoothed her hair onto her pillow, he gave into sleep himself, his last thought being that there is just one more job to do tomorrow.

Lorelai sat grumpily at the kitchen table, sipping her coffee while Luke drank tea. Luke wasn't about to let Lorelai sleep in today, not when they had just a few more hours with April.

Staring into her cup, Lorelai replied "Morning," when the twelve year old exited her room headed for the bathroom. It took a long moment before she realized that it wasn't a twelve year old Rory coming through the kitchen, it was April.

"What?" asked Luke, noticing her long look.

"Déjà vu from ten years ago. The last time a pre-teen came out of that bedroom," she said. "All baggy pjs and mussed hair, but most important, no teen angst."

They watched April return from the bathroom, saying "Morning," as she passed by, returning to Rory's room and closing the door.

"She's so small," breathed Luke. "Somehow in the diner, she's, like taller or something."

"Yeah," agreed Lorelai. "Once you take off the sneakers, the bike helmets and all the associated gear, you've got a little girl who's still very much a little girl there." She rubbed her knee against his as they sat side by side at the table. "She's gonna need her daddy. Don't get fooled by the science nerd stuff."

Luke stared at the floor for a long time, his eyes squeezed tight. "I am more amazed every day," he finally choked out.

"Well sure, kids will do that to you."

He ran his fingers through her curls, a warm smile stretching across his face. "I meant you. You've been all in on this for a single day and I feel more like April's dad right now than in all the weeks beforehand." He pulled her hand away from her coffee cup and kissed it. "Thanks for not giving up on me."

When all were assembled in the kitchen, Luke announced that they would have breakfast in the diner, then he was putting them to work.

"Work!" exclaimed Lorelai. "It's Sunday, the day of rest. I'm not going to work!"

"No work, no eat," he replied coolly, but sneaked a quick tickle when she passed by on her way to the coffeemaker.

A short while later in the diner, he came to take their order.

Lorelai tapped the menu, then asked, "Waffles or pancakes? What do you think, April?"

"Well," she replied, "Waffles do have that crunchy thing going on, but nice tender pancakes are also really great."

"With waffles, there's more place to hold syrup," suggested Lorelai.

"And fruit," added Luke. "We've got bananas, strawberries, blueberries and apples."

"Let's do waffles!" said Lorelai, to which April readily agreed.

"Luke, can you make BB waffles?" asked April.

He squinted in confusion. "BB waffles?"

Lorelai giggled when April said, "Bananas and blueberries together!"

"Me too, except make my BBs brown and blue M&Ms." She grinned at her fiancé.

"Fruit for everyone," he noted dryly and went to the kitchen.

"What do you know about Edgar Allen Poe?" asked Lorelai. "I have a story about your dad to tell you."

Luke turned back, looking suspiciously at Lorelai as she mentioned the Poes.

When the food came, Lorelai was just finishing. "… and that's how your dad saved the breakfast after the Independence Inn burned to the ground. The Poes applauded." She nodded sagely, adding, "You can come meet Stewart at the Dragonfly sometime."

Luke had managed to eavesdrop on the conversation while organizing things behind the counter. Funny, he thought, it had never occurred to him that April would want to know about him. He'd spent most of their visit time trying to get the pre-teen to talk about herself. Another hash mark on the idiot tally.

When their order came up, he put on an air of long-suffering as he served them. "Not that damn bird again. He's freaky. You should have thrown him out years ago." Luke lifted one long leg over the back of a chair and sat down between April and Lorelai. "Now eat. You have work to do afterwards."

"Not working," mumbled Lorelai through her mouthful of food. "Suberbizing."

"No supervisors, everybody works," he demanded jokingly. When all three had finished eating, he ordered, "Now upstairs with both of you!"

In the apartment Luke lifted a few empty boxes in his hands. "It's time to finish the move. We need one box for each area: April's room, miscellaneous stuff, and stuff that goes in the rumpus room. Start labeling boxes."

April giggled. "It was so funny last night when Lorelai and Rory were joking about the word rumpus, and when Logan called Rory 'Rumpus-stiltskin,' I thought she was going to kill him."

They joked and teased their way through Luke's things as various items were allocated among the boxes.

"Coffee run!" announced Lorelai as she dashed down the stairs.

Luke stood up, stretched and groaned, "There's way too much stuff here. I think we're going to have to leave some things."

"Hey Luke, could I have a couple of things for my room?" asked April shyly.

"Your box is over there," he grunted as he moved a full box to the hallway.

"No, I meant my room at home. You know, to have a couple of things back there, too, when I'm not visiting here."

Lorelai heard this interchange as she reached the top of the stairs. Stepping off to the side, she eavesdropped further.

"Uh, yeah, sure, I guess," he said, letting a small smile spread across his face. "What do you want?"

"Um, some photographs, if there are extras, and how about those bongos?"

Lorelai entered the room, Luke turning to her gratefully. "Which one of these photos did we want to give April?" He held up the three framed photos that Emily had given him.

"This one," she pointed out the photo they'd chosen together, bumping her hip against his as she remembered their photo shoots.

April grinned. "Excellent! Thanks! You guys look great here." She smiled as she wrapped the silver frame in paper, placing it in a new box labeled simply, 'April.'

Lorelai took Luke's photo album out of his hand as he was about to put it in April's box as well. "How about if we get your dad to show us through this book the next time you come over? Then you can put Post-Its on pictures you want to have copies of and I can choose some for enlargements for the Crap Shack?" She handed it to April, who immediately sat down and flipped through the album.

Luke came up behind Lorelai as she watched April delicately turning the pages of the album as if they were a great historical find. He wrapped an arm around her waist and whispered, "I like having you as my cheerleader." Her shining eyes reflected the tender love in his own as she leaned into his embrace.

"Oh yeah, this album is great," said April. "I really want to hear about the guys in the bad Minuteman costumes." She closed the book and handed it back to Lorelai.

"Don't forget the bongos," added Lorelai as she pulled them down from the shelf. "Those are always a crowd pleaser."

"Now," she said, "Who gets the Billy Bass?"

 _Fin_


End file.
